The Nutcracker

I'm giving my mom all the credit for finding my favorite edition of The Nutcracker story, illustrated by Susan Jeffers (c. 2007).  Accordingly, she sat in Barnes & Noble for hours flipping through and reading various editions of The Nutcracker until she settled on this one.  Jeffers edits the original text (which is quite lengthy) to make it child friendly, and she intentionally illustrates it to reflect Tchaikovsky's ballet, making this a beautiful, age-appropriate gift for children.

Nana gave this copy to my daughter last Christmas to commemorate a momentous occasion: enjoying her first performance of the Nutcracker ballet with her momma.

What I like best about this book is how well Jeffers incorporates the ballet into the story, as you can see here.  Said daughter was quite delighted to find that the book mirrored what she had seen on stage.  Thank you Mom for such a delightful book; it's a real treasure!