A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas
To Rita, Fiona, Jayme, Abby, and Dingbang…and the stinky cheese!—R. C.
For Mom and Dad—G. R. M.
For Grandmother with thanks to Andrea and Amelia
—W. S.
“YOU’RE RUINING CHRISTMAS! THE ONLY THING YOU’RE GOOD AT IS BEING BAD!”
“THAT’S RIGHT! I’M A NATURAL!”
’TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and everyone at the Stahlbaum house was merry…until Fritz Stahlbaum got himself in VERY BIG TROUBLE.
You see, he broke his sister Clara’s favorite nutcracker doll.
So Fritz was grounded. And accused of terrible things.
But the worst part of all, the most tragic, the most unfair and unreasonable part, was that Fritz’s favorite video game, Mouse Hunter 5000, was taken away and locked in the toy closet!
“SHE’S ABOUT YOUR AGE...”
And then everyone left to see the Nutcracker ballet, and Fritz had to stay home with the neighbor, boring old Mr. Drosselmeier, who INSISTED on telling him the story of the Nutcracker, even though Fritz was not interested AT ALL.
Then Mr. Drosselmeier talked on and on about his niece, Marie, who was arriving in an hour with her family, to visit for Christmas. Fritz did NOT care about that!
All Fritz really cared about was the loss of Mouse Hunter 5000. After all, he was THIS CLOSE to reaching Level 22, where he would finally have a chance to conquer the Mouse King.
Fortunately, Fritz knew where the key to the toy closet was hidden. So, when Mr. Drosselmeier went into the kitchen to make a phone call, Fritz snuck his video game out of the closet and played.
And PLAYED.
And PLAYED some more.
Over the giant wheel of cheese he went, down through the secret tunnel, up past the peppermint trees, and before Fritz knew it—HIGH SCORE! He had made it to LEVEL 22! Fritz was pretty sure he was the first kid in history ever to get there!
He began doing his victory dance around the living room when suddenly…
…he noticed a strange glow coming from inside the toy closet! Fritz could hardly believe his eyes.
The closet began to rattle and rumble. The door flew open with a BANG and out came none other than…
“We meet at last,” said the Mouse King, sneering at Fritz and raising his sword. “You’ve trapped a lot of mice in that nasty video game of yours, but now payback is mine!”
Fritz ducked and dodged, sure he was a goner, when suddenly someone else came bursting out of the closet…
“IF IT ISN’T MY FAVORITE NUTCRACKER!”
“YOU WON’T GET AWAY THIS TIME, CHEESE BREATH!”
“DUDE! YOU’RE A GIRL!”
“DUDE! YOU’RE QUICK...”
…a real live NUTCRACKER!
The Nutcracker gave a CHOP!
A SMACK!
And a KICK!
And then the Nutcracker’s hat came off, and Fritz saw something he didn’t expect…
And just then, the Mouse King slipped back inside the toy closet and was gone.
“Hurry!” said the Nutcracker to Fritz, “we’ve got to catch the Mouse King before he ruins Christmas!”
An adventure! Fritz liked the sound of that. So he followed the Nutcracker into the toy closet, wondering where in the world it would lead.
As they passed through the closet, Fritz saw a small boat waiting for them at the edge of an ocean.
“Get in!” said the Nutcracker. “Hurry!”
So Fritz climbed aboard. As they sailed, the Nutcracker told Fritz all about her battles with the Mouse King.
“He hates Christmas, because he hates it whenever children are happy,” the Nutcracker explained.
“It was me who locked him inside that video game of yours…”
“How?” Fritz interrupted.
“Too much to explain now!” the Nutcracker said. “We’re here!”
Fritz looked up to see the shore of a strange and wonderful land.
“Welcome to Christmas Wood!” announced the Nutcracker with a grin. “Everything here is made of candy. You can even eat the trees!”
Fritz snapped off a nearby twig—it tasted like real peppermint!
They sailed along the winding canal through a forest of peppermint trees. There was still no sign of the Mouse King, but Fritz noticed a sea of twinkling lights in the distance.
“That’s Toy Town!” smiled the Nutcracker. “It’s where Santa’s most magical toys come from. We have to get there before it’s too late!”
“WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS WOOD!”
“SHUT THE GATES FAST!”
“THE MOUSE KING IS ON THE LOOSE AGAIN, AND HE’S COMING THIS WAY!”
They arrived at the entrance to Toy Town and were greeted by the Mayor of Christmas Wood himself.
The Mayor quickly ushered them inside, and the large gates closed with a clank.
Toy Town was abuzz with activity. Sugar Plum Fairies flittered about, elves busily wrapped presents, and the town square was filled with the most wonderful toys Fritz had ever seen.
“I’m glad you warned us,” said the Mayor. “We were just about to start the Wind-Up Ballet!”
“What’s that?” asked Fritz.
“It happens every year on Christmas Eve,” the Nutcracker explained. “It’s how the toys say good-bye. You’ll see. Follow me to the Gilded Gate!”
The Gilded Gate stood in the center of town, glittering with colorful lights.
“Every toy must pass through this gate before it leaves Christmas Wood,” said the Mayor. “The toys here are all alive until that moment. Then the magic goes inside, and only the love of a child can ever bring it out again.”
Fritz watched as one of the bears marched through the Gilded Gate and became… a teddy bear!
Music filled the air as the toys danced with the elves and fairies, spinning and cartwheeling toward the Gilded Gate. Everyone was so entranced by the ballet that they didn’t notice the dark figure emerging from the shadows…
“Looks like I’m just in time,” said the wretched rodent, spraying clouds of nasty, stinky cheese everywhere.
The Wind-Up Ballet screeched to a halt as everyone started sneezing and coughing.
WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT...”
Fritz suddenly realized he knew exactly what to do.
“The blossoms from the peppermint tree!” He shouted. “Just like my video game—that’s how you get past the stinky cheese!”
Everyone quickly picked blossoms from the trees…and stopped sneezing immediately!
“Enough of this meddling,” snapped the Mouse King, pulling out his sword. “Time to smash your precious Gilded Gate to bits and ruin Christmas forever!”
“IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP HIM NOW!”
The Nutcracker drew her sword. “You’ll have to get through me first.”
“With pleasure,” hissed the Mouse King.
CLASH! SMASH! “Take that, you overgrown hamster!”
“Oh, no!” cried the Nutcracker as her sword was knocked from her hands. It flew through the Gilded Gate and came out as a toy sword on the other side!
“Looks like it’s GAME OVER for you, Nutty!” growled the Mouse King, raising his sword to finish her off.
But Fritz wasn’t about to let that happen.
He threw himself between them, shoving the Mouse King backward through the Gilded Gate, turning him instantly into…
“A VIDEO GAME!” cried Fritz.
“And look—the Mouse King is trapped inside!”
“Back where he belongs,” said the Nutcracker.
The fairies and elves all cheered with delight.
But there was no time for celebration—they still had work to do! Fritz and the Nutcracker helped guide each of the toys through the Gilded Gate as the elves loaded colorful presents onto Santa’s sleigh.
Suddenly, bells began to chime.
“It’s almost midnight, Fritz,” said the Mayor. “We’ve got to get you home before Christmas!”
Fritz said good-bye to his new friends. “I’ll miss you all,” he said. He saved his last good-bye for the Nutcracker. “Thank you for bringing me here!”
The Nutcracker smiled. “Thank you for helping save Christmas!”
DING-DONG!
The Sugar Plum Fairies sprinkled magic fairy dust in Fritz’s eyes making him feel very sleepy…
The doorbell woke Fritz, at home, in his chair. He rubbed his eyes. Had it all been a dream? It had seemed so real.
“At last! My Christmas guests!” said Mr. Drosselmeier, crossing to the front door. “I told them they could find me here.”
In came Mr. Drosselmeier’s family, one by one.
Fritz couldn’t believe his eyes. Mr. Drosselmeier’s niece, Marie, looked just like…the Nutcracker!
Soon Fritz’s family arrived home from the ballet with boxes of candies and sweets. Everyone danced and laughed, singing their favorite carols.
And for once, Fritz didn’t think about video games. He didn’t even think about new ways to tease and torment his sister.
Tonight, all he cared about was the Nutcracker.
RALPH COVERT is a singer and songwriter who also writes plays, musicals, and books. His first children’s album, Ralph’s World (2001), was called one of the finest children’s albums of that or any year by Billboard magazine. He lives in Chicago.
G. RILEY MILLS has never danced in The Nutcracker, but he did perform once as the left half of a singing, dancing Siamese twin vaudeville act in a circus. Also an award-winning playwrigh
t, he lives with his family in Chicago.
WILSON SWAIN is a tall man with a sharpened pencil and a permanent expression of mild surprise. An illustrator at heart since he was a child growing up on the prairies of Illinois, he now lives in Southern California. For this book, he took inspiration from holiday cards of the 1960s, store window displays of the1950s, and cartoon ephemera of the 1940s. He’s currently in his 30s.
Text copyright © 2009 by Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills.
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Wilson Swain.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
eISBN 978-0-8118-7977-4
Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclekids.com
Wilson Swain, A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas
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