I received a free copy of, My First Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker, by Jessica Courtney-Tickle, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a really short, quick, story on the Nutcracker, the beautiful play, about a girl and a nutcracker, I enjoyed the illustrations.

The publisher did an excellent job in telling the story of The Nutcracker in a succinct way. The illustrations were cute with characters that have diverse skin tones. Some board books can't do the classics justice, but they did.

A great way to introduce the story of the nutcracker to kids. The illustrations are fun and colorful. The story doesn't have to be abbreviated to such an extreme, a few more scenes could've been included.

Another terrific entry in The Story Orchestra series, introducing young readers through spectacular illustrations and musical excerpts to The Nutcracker. I'm buying the whole series for my personal library!

I think that there was a good idea here, but it wasn't executed well. This book was just too simple for "older" young kids and a little too advanced for "younger" young kids. I think that keeping the sentences simple but adding some more scenic and descriptive depth would help this book a lot. The illustrations were absolutely stunning, and I think that having some words to go with these beautiful images would be highly beneficial.
Lastly, I want to give credit to the author for the idea of this book. It was such a smart idea to breathe new life into classic orchestra stories so that kids of the newer generation(s) can enjoy these great stories.

Beautiful and simple retelling of the Nutcracker. Although I was unable to access the music, I believe it will greatly enhance the reading experience. The illustrations are lovely and very detailed. I think children will be entranced by them.

*Thank you to NetGalley for the arc, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Such a lovely introduction to a classic story. This is a great way to introduce young kids to the story of The Nutcracker and I love the idea of having music samples with the book and the illustrations are beautiful

This has beautiful illustrations! I wish the book had been twice as long though. It's a good intro to Nutcracker, but a little more would've been great.

I could not hear the musical component, but the beautiful illustrations make up for it. It is a very shortened version of the Nutcracker. I understand it was meant for a younger audience but it felt overly done. The artistic aesthetic is so refined, more pages would have made the experience even more enjoyable.

Fine introduction, at a very basic level, to The Nutcracker. Well illustrated and brief, it is suitable for the young ones.

I absolutely loved the illustrations in this book and thought they really helped bring the story to life. I will say that in the author's attempt to shorten and simplify the story of the Nutcracker so it can be understood by babies or toddlers it does loose a lot of detail and I found it difficult to piece the story together in a coherent way as someone who has never watched the Nutcracker. As is the case for all the books in this series, I feel that having access to the music with the physical copy of the book will enhance the story and make this a really fun reading experience. As a child I loved any book with sound effects so I know this will be an engaging, interactive book.

Overall this is a great idea for a series and I loved the illustrations!

Lovely, very simple telling of the story. Beautiful illustrations. I was not able to access the music but I think that would be a great addition to the story and introduction to classical music.