Lord of the Nutcracker Men

by Iain Lawrence

Book Overview

Ten-year-old Johnny eagerly plays at war with the army of nutcracker soldiers his toymaker father whittles for him. He demolishes imaginary foes. But in 1914 Germany looms as the real enemy of Europe,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440418127
• ISBN13: 9780440418122
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf Library
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

outstanding for a road trip through England/Great Britain

Our family listened to this as we drove across the English country side a few years ago. Our boys were 9 and 11 at the time. It is great historical fiction/fantasy story. We learned a lot about WWI both in the trenches and life at home at the time. I would recommend it to anyone who might be touring the British Isles with children.

LE

The book I chose was called Lord of the Nutcracker Men. My Opinion of this book is that it was pretty good. I thought it was sad because so many people died. I am making this recommondation because I thought the book was really fun to read and it had a happy ending. If you like war books, this is the book for you. I think it's a really exciting book. The book is about a boy named Johnny. His dad has to go off to war with France against Germany in World War One. The boy has to move to his Aunt's house because it's safer and his mother has to work and make things for the war. Johnny is stuck with his Aunt who is really mean and nice at the same time. In the book she calls him stupid and idiot and other mean things. Sometimes shes crying in his arms and hugging him. Every time Johnny would get a letter from his dad there would be a toy soilder with it that his dad carved for him. Johnny would set them up and battle with them. His soilders were real. In the book everytime Johnny had a battle the samething would happen in the real war. Johnny found this out later in the book. On one of the letters his father sent back it said on Christmas there was no fighting just singing and partying. My favorite part in the book is when Johnny gets his toy soilders from his dad, I like that part because it's a really nice and happy part. My least favorite part is the war because so many people die. I don't like killing. In conclusion, I think this book was a really good book. It shows you how bad war really is. I think you should read this book.

Lord Of The Nutcracker Men (6-7)

Lord Of The Nutcracker Men starts with a boy named Johny. Johny is ten years old. On his eleventh birthday he gets a small army of nutcracker men from his dad. From that day on he gets nutcracker every day his dad comes back from work. Now he has a whole army of nutcrackers. Johny?s dad is going into the war but he?s a foot too short. But things go his way and he makes it through. Every time Johny?s dad sends a letter their is a nutcracker for him to add to his collection of nutcrackers. The war is interfering with england so Johny has to move to his aunts house but he would?nt have his mother with him. So he?s all by himself on the train going to hie aunts house that he never knew he existed.I think you should read this book because it takes you through a young boys life with a da in the war, a mom indangered at england and a aunt that he did?nt know

Dance dance, wherever you may be

When I rule the world every man, woman, and child will be handed a copy of Iain Lawrence's brilliant "Lord of the Nutcracker Men" for their home library. Every country in the world will have it translated. And every human being will know it. Too high praise for a book that so few people (let alone librarians and booksellers) have heard of? Not at all. The amount of reception a book receives is not always indicative of how good it is. And this book is good. Boy oh boy, is it good.Taking the perspective of a ten-year-old boy during the first year of World War One, Iain Lawrence draws on his own knowledge (and intense research as well) to bring us a story of children during wartime. Johnny's father is a toy maker, and before going to fight the front lines he gives Johnny a set of handsome Nutcracker men to play with. As the war continues, Johnny's father sends his son hand-carved soldier to fight the German Nutcrackers. But Johnny comes to believe these soldiers carry a power beyond his own private games. As he plays with his toys he hears of battles frighteningly similar to the ones he's created. Soon Johnny comes to believe that the actions he takes in playing influence the real battles in France.This book is about war. The dirt, fatigue, and mindlessness of it. Drawing on the Iliad, Lawrence draws definitive connections between Troy and World War One that are eerily credible. As Johnny moves from loving the excitement of war (as a child does) to hating it (as an adult would) his opinion of fate, the gods, and God himself waver between fear and love. Beautifully written passages display his father's disillusionment as he deals with constant shelling, death, and despair. Though he never comes out and says it, the audience understands that this war really did mark the end of chivalry. Certainly we remember some dashing figures from this time. The Red Baron. Lawrence of Arabia. But for most soldiers it was a dirty filthy war. Based on dirt alone I highly recommend pairing this book with Karen Hesse's "Out of the Dust". You'll never want to leave your shower again.After the story, Lawrence clears up many of the facts portrayed within the story, elevating it from interesting fiction to a novella based in reality. Yes, there really was a Christmas Truce of 1914 where Germans and Brits climbed out of their trenches into the No Man's Land to celebrate Christmas together. Yes the village of Cliffe had their railway bombed by the Germans. Lawrence also notes that the supernatural was invoked more than a few times during the long years of the war. This feeling is well replicated in his book. The story wavers between what is real and what is imagined brilliantly. It never changes its tone (which is to say, it never starts out as a historical drama and suddenly turns sci-fi) and there are moments of otherworldliness that are nothing if not poignant. It is a gory story. It has moments of horror and despair. But it is also an hone

Book of the Year

I bought this book for my 10-year-old and he loved it, as much or more than Pullman, Potter, Redwall, etc. So now I'm reading it, and it's gripping. The characters are true, the plot sneaks up on you and then grabs you by the throat, and it will make you feel like you're ten all over again.