The Nutcracker: A BabyLit® Dancing Primer

by Jennifer Adams, Alison Oliver (Illustrator)

BabyLit(R) is a fashionable way to introduce your baby to the world of classic literature

With this colorfully illustrated board book version of the classic Christmas-time ballet, Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver present a new holiday favorite, The Nutcracker: A BabyLit(R) Dancing Primer. This board book features soldiers marching, mice prancing, snowflakes swirling, dolls bending, and buffoons skipping as a way to introduce basic movement terms to babies and toddlers.

Jennifer Adams is the author of many books including Remarkably Jane: Notable Quotations on Jane Austen and the popular Edgar the Raven series. Jennifer works as a writer and editor in Salt Lake City, Utah. Alison Oliver runs Sugar design studio. Her design portfolio includes everything from logos to packaging and product design for clients such as Chronicle Books, Citibabes, and Aerie. She lives in New York.

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Childrens

22 pages, Board book

Published September 12, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Jennifer Adams is the author of more than forty books. Her bestselling BabyLit board books (published by Gibbs Smith) introduce small children to the world of classic literature and have sold 1.5 million copies. She is the author of another series of board books, My Little Cities.

Jennifer’s picture books for children, Edgar Gets Ready for Bed, Edgar and the Tattle-Tale Heart and Edgar and the Tree House of Usher are inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.” She also has two new picture books forthcoming from HarperCollins.

Her titles also include books for adults, including Y is for Yorick, a slightly irreverent look at Shakespeare, and Remarkably Jane, notable quotations on Jane Austen.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Washington. She has 20 years’ experience as a book editor, including at Gibbs Smith and Quirk Books. She currently works as a consulting editor for Sounds True, developing their children’s line. Jennifer works some evenings at her local independent bookstore, The King’s English, to feed her book habit. She lives in Salt Lake City with her husband, Bill Dunford, who is also a writer.

(bio from author's website)

Reviews

[Ophelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i like all the different dancers in this book!

[Chrisanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

E wasn't interested. Definitely seemed to be based more on the ballet than Hoffman.

[Kim Bakos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a board book with a few of the characters from the Nutcracker ballet. If it were a little more detailed it would be a good book to read to a small child before taking him/her to the ballet. But for me, a board book is for little babies and toddlers, who are unlikely to go to the ballet or understand the story. By the time a child is old enough to go to the ballet or take dance lessons, they are old enough for a more complex story. But if you just want a story to share with a toddler that has some bigger words (prancing, swirling) and pretty pictures, this is a nice addition to the bookshelf.
A second positive for this book is the multicultural aspect of the illustrations. Half of the people in the pictures are dark skinned, and on one page there are Chinese children. Having a daughter adopted from China, I know it was hard to find books that had Asian children in them unless they were specifically about adoption or China.

[Sean Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adams Adventure #29
Baby Lit #23
First, every time I think there is no more Baby Lit books another appears - Goodreads says there are 23 books in the series, and I have read 23 but there are 4 I haven't been able to locate so far, so that is 27 and counting!
Anyway apart from all that hoo-ha the book itself was a good introduction to dancing terms and used the original source well, it would be even better if the music for the Nutcracker was played whilst reading it.
One of the better books in this series.

[Sara (Sjthroughthelookingglass) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the idea of favorite literature downsized for a baby's book. This series makes the book fun for both parents and baby's alike. Illustrations are bold, fun and colorful. This book is not layed out as a story, but rather a baby's first book of ____. My only complaint about this book is it seemed to end more abruptly than the others that I have.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the dancing terms in this one, but I have figured out one of my main problems with the BabyLit books. While the art is often adorable, when it depicts people of any race other than caucasian, it seems cliched and stereotypical to the point of being unknowingly racist. This one is no exception.

[Jessie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find this one particularly effective. I wasn't totally sure from the cover whether it was meant to be an adaptation of the ballet or of Hoffman's story, and it's definitely the ballet. But it's not a clear narrative. The nutcracker doesn't appear until the battle scene, there's no connection of the "toymaker" to anything else, the battle is unclear, and there's really no ending.

[Giselle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I freaking love these Babylit books! This one is especially delightful. I love the nutcracker so much and this was such a fun breakdown of it. With beautiful illustrations and charming sentences. This book made me smile so big.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

These "Babylit" books are surprisingly accessible to babies and toddlers! This one provides a plethora of wiggle prompts, such as DANCING, BENDING, PRANCING, MARCHING, SWIRLING, TWIRLING, SWAYING, SPINNING, LEAPING, and SKIPPING. What fun! I also love the stylized illustrations.

[Alicia Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

For: lit fans; readers looking for a book about movement.

Possible red flags: doesn't really follow the original work or give context to that story; focuses more on action words instead of dance terms.

[Melissa Swistek · Rating 4 out of 5]

My absolutely favorite of the BabyLit series. It hits the high points of the ballet. Much like the ballet itself, there’s not much of a story - just dancing.
It held the interest of my son more than then others in this series as well.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a cute way to introduce young ones to the different dances from "The Nutcracker" Ballet.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE the illustrations

[Jaci Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and colorful.

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book teaches children about dancing. It is a fun introduction to the classic tale.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrations: 4.5 stars
Text: 3 stars

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the illustrations, and the text was fine, but they didn't pair well together. Instead, they seemed very disconnected from each other.

[Anna]

Not as fun as the Moby Dick version

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very cute board book to gently introduce the concept of the nutcracker ballet (and especially its characters) to young toddlers and babies.

[Lillian Angelovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't get enough of these Baby Lit board books and this Nutcracker dancing version is irresistible!

[Sean Perron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great. Ends abruptly.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

BabyLit is a series of board books that uses classic works of literature to teach a concept. This board book uses E.T.A. Hoffmann's novella "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" and the concept is dancing. It is a cute series with nice illustrations.