Pure Christmas sparkle--and the ballet that almost always introduces children to the art. "Dreams are strange and wonderful things, and the dreams that are dreamed on Christmas Eve are the strangest and most wonderful of all." Join young Clara and her handsome Nutcracker Prince as they journey into the delightful Land of Sweets, where the candy dances and the Sugar Plum Fairy weaves her delicious spell.
For budding balletomanes and fairytale fans, The Magic of the Ballet series brings to life The Nutcracker; Sleeping Beauty; Giselle; and Swan Lake retold by Adele Geras, illus. by Emma Chichester Clark. A brief description of classical ballet serves as a prologue to each story, and an afterword offers further facts surrounding each ballet (when it was first performed, who choreographed it, the author of the story, etc.). Geras adds her gift for storytelling to the mix; for instance, Sleeping Beauty is narrated by Carabosse (the bad fairy who places the sleeping curse on Aurora), the Lilac Fairy (who tempers Carabosse's curse), the prince and Aurora herself.
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