Stefan Drosselmeyer is a apprenticeship with his father who is a master toy maker. Stefan's mother had died making everything feel empty without her. Stefan leaves the house to have his own adventure. But his adventure stops short when his cousin shows up. His cousin, Christian shows up wanting Stefan to come with him on a Journey. The journey is for Stefan to learn clockmaking. But Christian is banned form Boldavia. The only way for Christian to be allowed back into Boldavia is to find a nut that can cure the Kings daughter that was poisoned by the Mouse queen. And on top of that his father gets kidnapped too.

I think this book was good and exciting. My only problem with this book was, there were two problems that had to get solved. And they had to focus on different things. But other than that I really liked this book. If you are into a fantasy, mouses and talking animals you would enjoy this book. Its an adventure that is for humans and animals. I thought this book was fun and had me always guessing and thinking about what would come next. I think even though Stefan didn't have a liking for clocks in my opinion he started warming up to them. And it was an unusual twist on the nutcracker. ( )

Thank you to goodreads and the author for a free copy of the Toymaker's Apprentice!

I love a good retelling, and I love a good ballet. So, when I heard about The Toymaker's Apprentice, I was thrilled. A reimagining of the Nutcracker? Sign me up!

And this book does not disappoint. Imagine all of the magic of the Nutcracker ballet combined with amazing clockwork inventions and a villain worthy of a Redwall book, and you have an idea of how wonderful this story is.

Honestly, my only complaint is Clara/Marie and how little she appeared in the book... and that's more of a compliment than a complaint. She's smart, she's brave, she speaks her mind, and I'd easily read an entire book with her as the protagonist.

Overall, a fantastic steampunk (clockpunk?) adventure. Looking forward to checking out more of Sherri L. Smith's books. ( )

I keep wavering between three and four stars on this one and really, really wish GoodReads would add the option of half stars or number grades (this would be a 7 or 7.5 out of ten).

Anyway...

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. It was an interesting take on The Nutcracker, but felt like it took too long to get to the story proper. I liked the characters, but felt that it was lacking in female characters, especially females with needs and wants separate from those of the male characters (except the Mouse Queen and she was the Crazy Villain, so her actions were mostly motivated by Crazy). And, yes, I realize that this is in keeping with the nature of the relatively passive roles women played in the original E.T.A Hoffman story and Tchaikovsky ballet, but I think Sherri L. Smith is a writer who could have moved beyond the source material to create more fleshed-out female characters with larger roles to play.

But, you know, it was a fun read and might get kids to explore Hoffman's original--darker--tale. I'm just picky. ( )

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