The Nutcracker: Classic Collectible Pop-Up

I borrowed this book from the library for my child and we enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed the story w/i a story about Princess Pirlipat. The pop ups are elaborate and delicate. It's definitely for a child who understands that the book needs to be treated gently. My daughter loves the Nutcracker and this book is a treat for any child who does.

This version of the Nutcracker would be most appropriate for an older child who would be patient enough to listen to a longer version of this classic story and who would be gentle enough not to abuse the delicate pop-ups. The format of this version has the text on the left side of the page, then on the right side, there is a "box" to open which reveals a three-dimensional pop up. Often the pop up has several layers of depth within each illustration and usually it also has a lever to pull which makes something happen within the pop up (like one makes a toy ballerina spin and another makes the waves and swan boat move back and forth). The text itself is rather extensive; there are several paragraphs of story per page. Because there is only one pop-up for such a long segment of text, one draw back is that the listener must be willing to imagine a lot of the events and be content with fewer illustrations. Overall though, this is a very nice pop-up adaptation of a timeless classic--the pop-ups manage to capture some of magical beauty of the ballet, and it would be a great addition to any child's Christmas library.