THE NUTCRACKER MICE

Narrator Angela Dawe conjures the joy of dancing in this enchanting fantasy. At St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater in 1892, human dancers are preparing to debut Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet. Behind the scenes, the Russian Mouse Ballet Company wonders how they can possibly re-create a ballet in which mice are the enemy. Dawe brings spirit and sweetness to the roles of Esmeralda, the Mouse Ballet's irrepressible new dancer, and Irina, the human girl who discovers a dancing mouse and longs to know more about her. The villains sound appropriately scary, especially the terrifying Gherkin, who plans to rid the theater of mice. Dawe's spot-on pronunciation of French ballet terms and Russian proper names makes this audiobook accessible to young listeners, but the appeal is universal. N.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2017]