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Summary
Summary
A gorgeously imagined Nutcracker retelling from award-winning author making her middle-grade debut
Stefan Drosselmeyer is a reluctant apprentice to his toymaker father until the day his world is turned upside down. His father is kidnapped and Stefan is enlisted by his mysterious cousin, Christian Drosselmeyer, to find a mythical nut to save a princess who has been turned into a wooden doll. Embarking on a wild adventure through Germany, Stefan must save Boldavia's princess and his own father from the fanatical Mouse Queen and her seven-headed Mouse Prince, both of whom have sworn to destroy the Drosselmeyer family.
Based on the original inspiration for the Nutcracker ballet, Sherri L. Smith brings the Nutcracker Prince to life in this fascinating journey into a world of toymaking, magical curses, clockmaking guilds, talking mice and erudite squirrels.
Author Notes
Sherri L. Smith was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her first book, Lucy the Giant, was an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults in 2003. Her other books include Sparrow, Orleans, The Toymaker's Apprentice, and Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. Flygirl won the California Book Award Gold Medal.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Stefan Drosselmeyer's mother has just died at the start of Smith's (Orleans) fantasy riff on Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." Stefan, apprenticed to his toy maker father, wants to ease his grief by spending his journeyman years somewhere other than his home of Napoleonic-era Nuremberg. Luckily, his father's cousin, Christian, takes him on. Christian is clock maker to the King of Boldavia, and a royal appointment promises Stefan the best working materials and the heights of prestige. However, Christian came to Nuremberg on a quest that has driven him for seven long years-and made him the enemy of every rat and mouse in the world, especially the Queen of Mice, who is attempting to make her people into an army. Smith's usage of elements from Hoffmann, Dumas's later adaptation, and the perennially popular Nutcracker ballet is extremely clever, though the dreamlike fantasy realms of Hoffmann and the solidity of Smith's Nuremberg mesh less well. Stefan is a personable protagonist, but while his story inescapably recalls the terrors and wonders of the original, it doesn't quite succeed in recreating them. Ages 10-up. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Stefan Drosselmeyer, a clockmaker's apprentice, builds clockwork jaws to crack the special nut needed to restore the princess of Boldavia after an enchanted rat bite. When the rat bites him, Stefan must take part in the ensuing rat/human war as an enchanted nutcracker. Smith's energetic tale takes off in unexpected directions within the framework of its inspiration, The Nutcracker. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
In this inventive fantasy, Smith imagines an elaborate backstory for events in the Nutcracker ballet. Stefan Drosselmeyer is a kind, clever Nuremburg lad whose father, a toymaker, is kidnapped and imprisoned in Boldavia. With advice and help from his older cousin Christian and their friend Samir, Stefan travels among the squirrels to the Pagoda Tree, where he discovers how to crack the nut that will break the deformity spell binding the Boldavian princess, in hopes of setting his father free. Meanwhile, in the rodent world, Ernst is an educated but down-on-his-luck rat who becomes tutor to the Mouse Queen's heir, a seven-headed mouse princeling (later the Mouse King) who swears vengeance on Stefan after his mother's death. It's a great, sprawling story, elaborately plotted and brimful of elements such as a near-impossible quest, an apparent death overturned, and elaborate clockworks that keep the city running. While the many details and complications weigh the intertwined stories down, this full-tilt adventure will appeal to certain fantasy fans.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-Part Nutcracker with a dash of Pinocchio, this middle grade debut by YA author Smith is an absorbing tale of adventure, invention, family loyalty, and sly humor. Stefan Drosselmeyer and his father, a master toymaker, are in their home in Nuremberg grieving the recent loss of Stefan's mother. Enter flamboyant cousin Christian Drosselmeyer, who involves them in a perilous quest. Christian, the master clockmaker for the kingdom of Boldavia, was held responsible for a mouse uprising, and during a fight for the kingdom, the human princess was bitten by the maniacal Mouse Queen and turned into wood. The only known cure for her condition is a krakatook, a nut that is proving impossible to find. Before Stefan and Christian can return to the search in earnest, Stefan's father is kidnapped. The quest to find him and the krakatook and save Boldavia from the vengeful Mouse Queen and her seven-headed son while escaping with their lives is almost the undoing of the Drosselmeyers. Suspense builds as the chapters alternate between human and rodent perspective. Bursting with unforgettable characters of both species (and a few others), the novel rushes along to its inevitable final battle and enlightening conclusion. The author's note describes the connection to the original Nutcracker, which inspired Alexandre Dumas's retelling and the well-known ballet. VERDICT Fans of both genres will relish this highly recommended historical fantasy.-Sara-Jo Lupo Sites, George F. Johnson Memorial Library, Endicott, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Men and mice engage in mortal conflict in this multilayered retelling of The Nutcracker. Apprenticed to his master-toymaker father in early-19th-century Nuremberg, Stefan Drosselmeyer's world changes after his beloved mother's funeral. His clockmaker cousin and his traveling companion, an Arab, arrive from Boldavia after a seven-year quest for the "meat of a nut called a krakatook." The vengeful Queen of Mice, mother to her seven-headed royal princes, has turned the human princess of Boldavia into a wooden doll, and only that rare nut can cure her. Stefan finds the nut, and the ensuing journey to Boldavia to rescue his father, kidnapped by the mice, and cure the princess is filled with danger, mechanical toys, and a visit to wise squirrels. In alternating chapters, a troubadour rat and tutor to the mouse princes sings mournfully of his folk's disaster in Hameln, and one of those princes ruminates on his less-than-bellicose worldview. A grand battle takes place back in Nuremberg on Christmas Eve at the home of the Stahlbaums with a Nutcracker (Stefan), a slipper-tossing Marie, mechanical mice, and streets that swarm with real mice. No sweet strains of Tchaikovsky's ballet score waft through this complex tale of family devotion, revenge, and warfare. A fast-paced adventure whether or not all the characters are familiar. (author's note) (Fantasy. 10-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
IT WAS A DREARY DAY for the time of year in Nuremberg. Gray clouds hung low over the peaked roofs of townhome and hall. The cobblestoned streets seeped with drizzled rain. A little gray dove leapt into the air from a great oak tree that stood in the graveyard. From his perch in the limbs of the tree, Stefan Drosselmeyer watched as the bird flew over hundred-year-old graves, and the newer crypts adorned with weeping angels and family names. A thin line of mourners followed the coffin in a sad parade through the cemetery gates and into the mossy rows of the dead. In the distance, two gentlemen on horseback, clad in the same black as mourners, regarded the scene from a nearby rise. A hitch developed in the smooth strokes of the dove's wingbeats and it faltered. Stefan frowned as the wings froze and the bird glided back toward his tree, where he snatched it from the sky. One of the men on horseback looked up, revealing an eye patch and a single bright blue eye. Stefan scooched farther back into the shelter of the tree. He bit his lip, turning the dove over in his hands. Up close, the bird looked less like a dove and more like a child's approximation of a bird. A solid shape, no feathers, and only a dark spot of paint for the eye. He had just completed his apprenticeship as a toymaker and was proud of his bird. His father, who also happened to be his master toymaker, was the old-school sort who thought toys should only move when lifted. But Stefan was more interested in the modern trend toward automation. He brushed a shock of damp hair out of his eyes and frowned at the damaged wings. The paint had failed to seal the joints completely, and rain had gotten in, swelling the wood. In the graveyard beneath his tree, the procession had come to a stop before a low black crypt. He could hear the priest droning on, the sound of his father in tears. "Where is he?" a sharp-nosed woman whispered. Stefan's absence had been noticed. "He's just a child," a plump woman murmured. "The church service was more than enough." It had been more than enough, Stefan agreed. The gloomy cathedral, soot blackened, candles barely bright enough to see by. And his mother, cold and pale in the narrow coffin. His father had insisted on building the casket himself, a tribute to his beloved wife. He wished to be alone with only his tools, not his son. Left to his own devices, Stefan had decided to make the dove. Murmured condolences covered the gossip of the two women. Stefan examined the wooden bird. When wound by the pegged tail feather piece, the wings would crank to a point of tension and then, with the tail cocked just so--the bird would take flight. Light wooden wings beating a frantic blur. A favorable wind could keep the dove aloft for minutes at a time. But today the wind blew strange. He stuffed the bird into the pocket of his redingote and pulled out a sketchbook. The wool coat was too big for him, and too heavy for the weather, but it was his only black coat. He'd grow into it, his mother had said. For now, it kept out the worst of the rain. He jotted down a few thoughts in his notebook beside a sketch of the bird device. Below, he could hear the priest's blessings come to an end. He risked a glance down at the gathering. The door to the crypt stood open, black as night, blacker than the lacquered coffin. Above the lintel, a name was carved deep into the stone: Drosselmeyer . With a slide of wet leaves, Stefan dropped out of the far side of the tree and hopped the fence, his coat snagging briefly on the rusty iron bars. He dragged himself free without looking back. A tear in the wool would be more easily mended than a tear in his heart, and that was what would happen if he watched them roll his mother into her grave. Don't look back, he told himself. His hair was in his eyes again, the same blue-green eyes as his mother's, the same dark blond hair. He pushed the locks brusquely out of his way. "Never look back," he said through clenched teeth, and walked out into the gray world. His boots clattered onto the cobblestones, gaining in tempo as he broke into a run. * * * ON THE HILL overlooking the graveyard, the men on their strange black horses shifted. No breath rose from the nostrils of their stone-still mounts. The men shook their reins, and with a soft click of gears, the horses followed Stefan into the street. Excerpted from The Toymaker's Apprentice by Sherri L. Smith All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.