I have started to mark my Christmas season with the latest Alex T Smith advent book and I am now firmly addicted! We first had Winston, then the Grumpus and now the Nutcracker.
I make no secret of the fact that I am Alex T Smith’s biggest fan and so when this parcel arrived, I squealed, jumped about and made a huge fuss.
It is also no secret that I love the season of Advent and that I find each day more exciting and anticipatory than the one before. I may love advent more than the big day itself.
Combining two of my favourites for the festive season makes total sense and I can’t count how many times I have gifted an Alex T Smith advent book to family and friends- with more plans to do the same this year!
The Nutcracker is a widely known Christmas spectacular with the Nutcracker battling the rat king, sugar plum fairies dancing and sweets being the food of choice. In this inspired tale, we meet Clara and Fritz, siblings who are looking forward to Christmas candy, though they are worried about the distinct lack of candy, cake and biscuits in the days before.
When they meet a toy maker, they discover that real magic does exist and that their help is needed. Walter, the nutcracker, has been entrusted by the fantastic Sugar Plum Fairy, to hide the golden key to the Kingdom of Sweets so the Mouse King doesn’t come in and do shenanigans.
Clara and Fritz try to help but it all goes terribly wrong and there is a disaster when Fritz begins turning into a mouse. They have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it. The Mouse King has a long list of shenanigans planned and it isn’t just sweets that are at stake, but Christmas itself.
Delightful, whimsical and enchanting, this advent story will be hard to stop reading each evening and I can hear the pleas of children begging for one more chapter…
My Shelves Are Full 