Mary Jane Auch's The Nutquacker Isn't Too Light on Its Feet

Years ago, there was a charming animated special entitled Annabelle’s Wish that featured a calf who was born just in time to be introduced to the magic of Christmas, which allowed her and her fellow creatures the gift of speech for 24 hours each year. Mary Jane Auch‘s The Nutquacker has a similar barnyard setting, but in this case, it’s a duck experiencing the holiday for the first time, and she isn‘t quite as endearing as Annabelle.

Clara, a white duck with a snowy tuft of feathers atop her head, doesn’t know that’s what “Christmas” is. She’s just been hearing a lot of whispers around the farm, and she doesn’t have the patience to wait until the older animals unveil the surprise for her. Not even knowing what to look for, Clara goes off in search of Christmas.

Clara reminds me a lot of Beatrix Potter’s Jemima Puddleduck. She’s headstrong and not very bright. She leaves her home with no preparation, and without even a clear goal in mind. Then again, her friends - the cows, the sheep, the horse and the pigs - are dismissive and even derisive toward her. They are planning a surprise for her benefit, but they ought to have put more thought into how to keep it under wraps without offending Clara. While her curiosity is intense, it’s probably her friends’ lack of consideration that drives her over the edge, into unknown lands in the swirling snow.

Like Jemima, Clara has an encounter with a predator, and she shows more sense in this confrontation than in most of the book. This portion of the story also includes my favorite illustration, which shows Clara peeking out from under an evergreen at a pathway of light escaping from an open barn door. The full-color pictures are fairly engaging, but I’m annoyed by the sheep, who always has her tongue sticking out, and the final scenes in which other barnyard residents are all dressed in fancy party clothes and walking on their hind legs makes little sense since they wear no clothes and stick to all fours throughout the rest of the book. And Clara’s dress seemingly appears out of nowhere.

The Nutquacker is a cute title, but the object to which it refers has little bearing on most of the book. I was expecting some sort of spoof on The Nutcracker, or perhaps a story about a duck dancing in a ballet program. The explanations that Christmas is about giving and being with the ones who love you are a nice way to bring the book to a close, but with so many terrific Christmas books out there to choose from, I wouldn’t bother with this. For a more engaging picture book about feathered friends celebrating Christmas, check out Olivier Dunrea’s Merry Christmas, Ollie! or Nancy Raines Day‘s Flamingo’s First Christmas.