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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
Lord of the Nutcracker Men |
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Author: |
Lawrence, Iain |
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Date Published: |
2001 |
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Genre: |
Historical Fiction |
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Grade Level: |
4 - 8 |
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Booktalker: |
Bonnie Phinney |
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Booktalk:
LORD OF THE NUTCRACKER MEN
BY IAIN LAWRENCE
My father was the finest toymaker in London. Mostly he made miniature castles and marionettes, trains, and carriages, and that sort of stuff. But the most wonderful thing he ever made was an army of nutcracker men that he gave me for my birthday when I turned nine: 30 soldiers carved from wood, dressed in helmets and tall black boots, carrying rifles with bayonets. I played all the time with those men, marching them across the kitchen floor in a make-believe battle.
After the war broke out, in 1914, I noticed that my soldiers looked just like the German soldiers. So then I begged my father for French and British soldiers, so I could create a “real war” with the nutcracker men.
But the real “real war” changed everything in my life. First, the butcher vanished – Fatty Dienst was his name. We were good friends. My dad told me he left to join the German army, “that army of other butchers” my father said. Then others vanished – all the people with German names. Suddenly it seemed like everyone was full of hate. Hate for these people who had been their friends. Then, on August 5, 1914, everyone celebrated – that was the day that Britain went to war. Everyone rushed to sign up. Even my dad, eventually.
By the time he went off to war, life in London was getting dangerous and I was packed off to my Auntie Ivy’s house, in the country, to protect me from the bombs. I hated it there. The only person who was nice to me was a girl, Sarah, and that was almost as bad as not having a friend at all! I missed my pals in London. I missed my mom. I even missed all the soldiers and their guns.
But my aunt had this great garden – nearly the size of our home in London. And that’s where I spent my time, where I set up my soldiers. Sarah’s father helped me make the battlefield scene very realistic, with fighting trenches and communication trenches. He helped me position everyone correctly. You see, he had been to the front. He knew.
My father wrote me letters – first from his training camp and later from the front. At first it was all a game. Like my game with the nutcracker men. I set up my men the way he described the action at the front. And then I recreated the battles…but after a while, something strange happened. I began to recreate battles BEFORE my father wrote me about them. It felt as though I was fighting the battles side by side with my dad.
At first it was exhilarating. But not for long. Our battles, mine and my dad’s, became fierce. My father’s letters were changing. He was changing. But even more frightening was the model soldier of my dad – it was changing, too, changing before my eyes. I began to think, in some strange way, that my game was actually influencing what was happening in France. Not only to my father, but to Sarah’s father, as well. To everyone. It was like I was one of those Greek Gods Homer writes about, controlling the lives of the mortals…Me, the Lord of the Nutcracker Men.
Lord of the Nutcracker Men
By Iain Lawrence
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