Children's Book Reviews

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Lord of the Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence
Delacorte Press, Oct., 2001
Hardcover, 212 pages
ISBN: 0385729243
Ages 10 & up
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

Lord of the Nutcracker Men
by Iain Lawrence

Iain Lawrence has presented us with a tale that evokes the personalities and the feelings of the era of World War I, while still keeping us in suspense about the final outcome. This is clearly an outstanding story for today's young people. Because of the increased popularity of biography and fictional biography, no doubt due to the excellent offerings on television, the ten to thirteen year old set will clearly find Lord of the Nutcracker Men to be one of their new favorites.

Johnny is ten years old and he lives in London with his parents during the early days of World War I. Johnny's father is an outstanding toy maker by profession and one of his creations, a hobbyhorse, is being enjoyed by Princess Mary at Buckingham Palace. For his son, the father made a nutcracker army which was the boy's present for his ninth birthday; the boy played with his pretend army constantly. A year later the war started in Europe and in Johnny's neighborhood German people began to disappear as war sentiments began to grow. Johnny's father was soon gone as well, and to make matters even more difficult, Johnny was sent by his frightened mother to live with his aunt in a small town outside of London. There in the little town of Cliffe, Johnny reluctantly attends school during the day and plays with his soldiers and awaits his father's letters in the evening. In each letter is a new soldier, carved by his father as he waits between attacks and mortar shells. Somehow, in a mysterious way, the soldiers with which Johnny plays so fiercely in the mud in the garden of his aunt's home become linked to his father's letters in a prophetic way.

Iain Lawrence tells us an his Acknowledgments that he had begun this story as a Christmas story, but that it had grown into much more. In the powerful final chapter, Johnny's father writes about the truce between German soldiers in their trenches and English tommies in their trenches made their own truce by singing Silent Night on Christmas Eve in 1914. In the Author's Note at the end of the book, Mr. Lawrence gives the factual details that he has woven so skillfully in his book. After reading the book, any reader will have a better picture of what ordinary people felt and did in this war that was supposed to be over by Christmas (but lasted for four more years) and left so many wounded hearts and bodies on both sides of the English Channel.

--Sarah Reaves White

The Violet Keystone (The Seventh Tower: #6) by Garth Nix
Scholastic, December, 2001
Trade paperback, 233 pages
ISBN: 0439176875
Ages 9-12
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

In this long-awaited final installment in the compelling fantasy series, The Seventh Tower, Tal and Milla reach their journey's end. The war between the Chosen, the free Spiritshadows and the Icecarls is now raging in the Castle. Tal and Milla meet up at last to face the evil Sharrakor (who intends to rule both the Castle and Aenir), and for Tal to meet his destiny. Milla, who is now known as Milla Talon-Hand, is the leader of the Icecarls, and Tal has mastered the violet light of royalty. But does that make him the king of his land? Tal and Milla must face overwhelming obstacles in order to reach their final goal of sealing the rift between the veil and the Castle, sending all the errant Spiritshadows back to Aenir and restoring order to their world.

The Violet Keystone neatly pulls together all the plot threads that have kept readers spellbound for the last five books in the series. Both Tal and Milla have grown immensely as characters since they first met in Book One. The action and suspense continue right up to the very last page; this is an outstanding fantasy series by the talented Garth Nix. We can hardly wait to see what he does next.

--Claire E. White

Children's Book Reviews
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Children's Book Reviews

Lord of the Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence

The Violet Keystone (The Seventh Tower: #6) by Garth Nix