The Fairytale Hairdresser and the Sugar Plum Fairy introduces characters from The Nutcracker, it’s a lovely story for the festive season. As with all the Fairytale Hairdresser stories we love spotting all the different fairytale and nursery rhyme characters in Lauren Beard’s illustrations.
The Story: It’s the day of the Winter Ballet and Kittie and Clara are happily decorating the Christmas tree with ribbons and Clara’s nutcracker. But The Sugar Plum Fairy is sad as Prince Armand is missing. She waves her wand and Kittie and her friends are transported to The Land of Sweets to help her find Prince Armand but he’s nowhere to be found. When the evil Mouse King and Queen arrive, the nutcracker leads the fight against them but as the danger heightens Kittie and Clara come to his rescue and defeat The Mouse King and Queen. Then Clara kisses the nutcracker and something magical happens…
The Fairytale Hairdresser and The Sugar Plum Fairy is a really feelgood story. Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella and Rose all join Kittie in The Land of Sweets which is hidden in the Christmas tree. But The Land of Sweets is constantly in danger from the mice who want to eat all the sweets. As Prince Armand is missing, The Sugar Plum Fairy brings the toys on the Christmas tree to life. Despite the jack-in the-box and the teddy bears’ attempts to hold off the mice they are all in danger until Kittie comes up with an ingenious plan. With the mice safely locked away the show can go on!
Lauren must have had such fun illustrating The Land of Sweets with its Candy Cane Tower and the fruit salad lollipops that are as big as the characters! There are Love Hearts, cola bottles and even a chocolate pond to fish in! Many of the details in the illustrations make us laugh, I love Little Red Riding Hood’s scarf and my daughter loves Rapunzel’s huge bun (she thinks it is hilarious that she can dance with so much hair on top of her head!). The names of the shops are also really original and pertinent to particular characters, for example. Miss Peep’s Wool Shop and my favourite, Gold-e-locks locksmiths!
With its sparkly, tactile, glittery cover this is a wonderful story to read during the Christmas season. Sleeping Beauty is quoted on the back cover as saying ‘This book is dreamy!’. We agree!
Age Range: 3 +
Author: Abie Longstaff / Illustrator: Lauren Beard
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