Just released this month! This version of The Nutcracker is a marvelous combination of story-telling, illustration, and great music. Included with the book is a CD recording of a full-orchestra performance of Tchaikovsky’s music by the Utah Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maurice Abravanel.

Published as an Alfred Knopf Borzoi Book by Random House, this just might very well become the standard version of this popular story. Stephanie Spiner does an excellent job of retelling Hoffman’s short story – Marie, Fritz, and the other children are excitedly awaiting the exchanging of Christmas gifts. Marie’s godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer has the most intriguing gifts – two life-size dolls, who dance when you wind them up, and a life-size toy soldier who marches and maneuvers around the room. For Marie he has one last special gift, a large wooden nutcracker dressed like a general. When Marie falls asleep, she has a vivid dream in which the nutcracker comes to life, fights a dramatic battle with the mouse-king, is transformed from a mustachioed general into a dashing young prince, and takes her to visit his kingdom of sweets, presided over by the Sugar Plum Fairy, where she is entertained by flamenco dancers, Chinese dancers, an Arabian dancing girl, and Madame Ginger.

The illustrations to this fantastic tale are delicate, detailed, precise, and fantastic. Peter Malone is a British artist who studied at both Winchester and Coventry schools of art. Working in watercolors, he creates just the right mix of magic and realism here.

Play the CD, and read the story to your children while they look at the illustrations – especially if you plan to see a performance of the ballet this Christmas. The Nutcracker is a 40 page hardback. The book (including the CD) may be purchased directly from Greenleaf Press for $16.99 by clicking here.

Peter Malone has also illustrated a book and CD version Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf ($19.99). Note: This version of the tale of Peter and the Wolf has a kinder and gentler ending than the traditional version (in which the wolf is captured and taken to the zoo). Here, the wolf promises to reform and is released back into the wild. Available directly from Greenleaf Press for $19.99 by clicking here.

Historical footnote: A performance of The Nutcracker has become a Christmas tradition in the United States, with hundreds of local productions by dance studios every year, in towns and cities large and small.

It comes as a surprise to most people when they learn that the version now widely performed has a history of only about 50 years. For me (I know, I just can’t help being the historian), the most interesting page of this new picture book was the final one with “A Note to the Reader.” Tchaikovsky wrote the music in 1892 to tell a tale adapted from a short story by the German Romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann, published in 1816. Russian audiences liked the music. They didn’t much care for the ballet – which was performed with a cast of all adult dancers.

From 1915-1944, the ballet was performed by dance companies in Europe in various adaptations, but never achieved much critical success. The first full-length production with children in the cast seems to have been staged by the San Francisco Ballet in 1944. The modern versions of the Nutcracker which are now staged across the USA are all derived from the version choreographed by George Balanchine in 1954 for the New York City Ballet. Balanchine was a Russian émigré and had danced with the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg before the Russian Revolution (which interrupted his studies just before his 14^th birthday) and with the State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet after the Revolution. He fled Russia in 1924 and joined Serge Diaghilev and Stravinsky in Paris at the Ballets Russes. He came to the United States in 1933 and eventually founded the New York City Ballet in 1948. Beginning in 1954, the New York City Ballet’s annual staging of the Nutcracker has made it an American tradition.

- Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press

It has been 33 years since the end of the Vietnam War – and yet it remains a terribly difficult story to tell, and there are very few books which can be used to explain to young people what happened.

World War Two suffered no such lack of attention or resources. By 1978, there were any number of useful books, biographies, and movies which helped to educate the boomers about what their parents had gone through.

The differences and difficulties are obvious, of course. The United States lost the Vietnam War. The memories are painful. Attitudes towards the war have continued to divide the boomer generation and its successors. In many ways, Barack Obama will be the first truly post-Vietnam president.

Nonetheless, telling the story of the Vietnam War to our children is an important task. Yes, it is difficult, but it remains important.

Up until Philip Caputo’s book, the best book for middle & high school students I knew of was Albert Marrin’s America and Vietnam: the Elephant and the Tiger. Marrin is an excellent historian, and an excellent writer. He’s the retired head of the History Department at Yeshiva University in New York. His book remains the best high school reading-level text currently available.

But along with Marrin’s book I would now also highly recommend Philip Caputo’s 10,000 Days of Thunder. It is written for a slightly younger audience and is much more visual and episodic in its approach to telling the story. It contains 40+ double-page spreads, each devoted to covering an aspect of the war, almost always with a full-page photograph and an excellent short essay on the topic at hand.

Here’s a sample of the topics:

• Communism
• Origins of the Vietnam War, Part One: French Colonialism in Vietnam
• Origins of the Vietnam War, Part Two: The Dividing of Vietnam
• Origins of the Vietnam War, Part Three: The Reasons for American Intervention
• Viet Cong
• The Tonkin Gulf Incidents
• The Ia Drang Campaign
• The Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Agent Orange
• The Tet Offensive
• Atrocities: Hue and My Lai
• The Antiwar Movement
• The Draft
• Vietnamization
• The Paris Peace Talks
• The Fall of Saigon
• The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Wall

Caputo is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and a Vietnam vet himself. His memoir of his experiences in Vietnam as a marine Lieutenant, A Rumor of War, has sold over two million copies since its publication in 1977. His prose style is clear and even-handed, not polemical. It is in his descriptions of the experience of individuals on the ground that he excels. The most gripping parts of this book, both visually and textually, are the units on how the war affected individuals. These make the book unique. Here’s a sample of the topics:

• The Advisors’ War
• The Riverine War
• The Unconventional War
• The Company Commanders’ War
• The Villagers’ War
• The Corpsmen’s War
• The Nurses’ War
• The Tunnel War
• The Journalists’ War
• Prisoners of War

With its heavy visual emphasis, this is a book that will be accessible and capture the interest of students from grades 5 and up. Even high school students and adults will find it an evocative introduction to a painful period of American history. It does not cover any of these topics in depth, but what it tells is true and thought provoking.

10,000 Days of Thunder is a hardback, 128 pages with color photography throughout. It can be purchased for $23.99 directly from Greenleaf Press.

There is also an excellent book available from DK in their Eyewitness Series, titled simple Vietnam War (hardback, $15.99). If you’d like to study this important time period with your students, I’d recommend all three books as resources: Marrin, Caputo, and DK.

- Rob Shearer, Publisher

Greenleaf Press

The full title is:

The Christmas Story
From the King James Bible * According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Paintings by Gennady Spirin

It’s quite unusual to find a modern artist whose style evokes the late medieval/early renaissance style of Giotto and Fra Angelico – but Gennady Spirin is such an artist. Spirin was born in the USSR in 1948 and studied at the Academy of Arts in Moscow. He came to the US in 1991. He has won four gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York.

Kathy Viksjo writes in The Times on June 7, 1998:

“He incorporates Raphael’s rich color—deep gold, blue and crimson reds—together with the Italian master’s classical compositions, into many of his illustrations. The microscopic precision of his super—realism recalls Flemish great Jan Van Eyck, while Spirin’s unbelievable graphic facility is like that of German Renaissance artist, Albert Durer…Even at first glance, viewers intuitively know that this is one of the masters of our time…Spirin is like a magician, using his paint brush as a wand.”

This is not a coffee-table art book. It is a comfortable 7.5″ x 7.5″ It is a book to be read out loud with a child in your lap – slowly, allowing reader and listener to linger and marvel over the beauty of the paintings.

The text and paintings move gracefully through the familiar sections of the Christmas narrative, weaving together the passages from Luke and Matthew. Gennady works in tempera, watercolor, and pencil. He quotes from the great masters of western Christian art, but in his own distinctively delicate style.

There is the Annunciation, the Journey to Bethlehem, the angels and the shepherds, the journey of the wise men, and finally the classic iconic scene of the Adoration of the Magi. Here are four examples:

The Christmas Story has just been released by Henry Holt this month for Christmas, 2008. It is a hardback, 32 pages and may be ordered directly from Greenleaf Press for $12.95.

- Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press

Just published - The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War! This is a worthy addition to the Politically Incorrect Guides. I’ve previously reviewed the Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization, and the Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.First, a few caveats. Neither the book (nor this post) is an apology for or a defense of slavery. I believe slavery to have been a great moral evil – and I wish it had been ended in this country earlier and with less bloodshed. But there is much more to the Civil War than simply the question of whether slavery was evil and should be abolished.Crocker deals directly with the topic of slavery early in the book in a 12-page essay in answer to the question, “Was the war really all about slavery?”

The first sentence of his answer is, “In the sense that the South was defined by slavery, yes.” He then proceeds to qualify that answer and show that the issue is far more complex than the politically correct answer.

As an example, he quotes a famous letter from Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greely in August 1862, in which he stated: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others also I would also do that.”

As Mr. Crocker observes, “. . . the stated aim of the Lincoln administration in 1861 was not the abolition of slavery; it was the forcible reunification of the Union.”

Both Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederate States) and Robert E. Lee believed that the abolition of slavery was something that would happen peaceably in due course. Lee’s opinion was that “emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influence of Christianity than from the storms and contests of fiery controversy.”

Crocker’s summarizes the conflict as a clash of cultures:

“The South considered the North an unprincipled money-grubbing, self-righteously intolerant leviathan, and thought of itself as a liberty-loving agricultural Sparta of gracious gentlemen, classical culture, and feudal order.

The North considered the South a backward land of hot-tempered planter-aristocrats who kept a booted heel and a master’s whip on the backs of slaves, tainted the Union with its “peculiar institution,” and dragged it into wars against Mexico only to expand its hateful “slave power.” The North, in its own view, was enlightened, practical and business-like, and consequently wealthy, forward-looking, and the obvious moral superior to a region that kept imported Africans in bondage.”

As Crocker shows, each side tended to caricature the other – which only underscores that the conflict (although it involved slavery as a central issue) was about much more than slavery. Crocker argues, convincingly, that the war was fought, not to free the slaves (though in the end, it resulted in their freedom), but to forcibly prevent the Southern states from peaceably seceding.

The majority of the book is not about why the war was fought, but devoted to retelling the course of the war from the Southern perspective. There are two chapters which tell The History of the War in Sixteen Battles You Should Know. These are well worth the read.

This is followed by nine chapters which are admirable biographies of the leading generals on both sides. Southern generals sketched are Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, and A.P. Hill. But there are also chapter length biographies of the Union generals George H. Thomas (introduced with the wry comment that “some of the best Union generals were southerners”), William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and George McClellan.

Part IV of the book is a fascinating study of cavalry officers Wade Hampton, Philip Sheridan, J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer.

Part V, titled Beating Retreat is an extended essay on the topic, What If the South Had Won? Crocker composes a remarkable speech that Lincoln might have given, but tragically didn’t, that begins:

We part as friends. We hope to reunite as friends. There will be no coercion of the Southern states by the people of the North. No state shall be kept in the Union against its will . . . but we ask the Southern states, to which we are bound by mystic chords of memory and affection, that they reconsider their action., If not now, then later, when the heat of anger has subsided, when they have seen the actions of this administration work only for the good of the whole and not for the partisan designs of a few; when this administration shows by word and deed that it is happy to live within the confines of the Constitution, that we will admit of no interference in the stabled institutions of the several states. I trust that by our demeanor, by our character, by our actions, by our prosperity and our progress we will prove to our separated brethren that we should again be more than neighbors, we should be more than friends, we should in fact be united states, for a house united is far stronger, will be far more prosperous, and will be far happier than a house divided, a house rent asunder by rancor, a house that undermines its very foundations by separation.
To the people of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas, I have a special message. I tell you that this government will raise no arms against the states of the Southern Confederacy. We will wage no war of subjugation against these states. And I confirm, yet again, that I have neither the right, nor the power, nor the desire to abolish slavery within these states or any other where it is lawfully established. What I do desire, as do all Northern states, is that we be once again a nation united in peace, amity, and common government. Let us through prayer and good graces work to achieve that end. I ask that all good men of the United States, and those now separated from us, work peaceably to achieve the reconciliation that is our destiny and our hope. Four score years ago we created a new nation, united in principle. I pray that sharing the same God, the same continent, and the same destiny, we might unite again in common principle and common government.”

If Lincoln had not gone to war to keep the Southern states from seceding, would they have one day returned and reunited with the Union peaceably? We will never know. We do know what waging war to prevent secession cost – and it was far more than Lincoln, or anyone else, expected.

Included as an Afterword to this volume is an essay by Jefferson Davis which he composed for his own history of the Confederacy. It is worth reading if one wants to understand what motivated the Southern states to secede and to fight for their independence.

The Politically Incorrect Guides are intended for college students as a balance and useful corrective to the usual bill of fare in politically correct textbooks, but they could be profitably read by high school students who are studying this important period of history. This Guide will also serve as a thought-provoking read for parents and all those interested in better understanding what is still one of the central facts of the history of the United States, the Civil War.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War is a paperback, 370 pages. Like all of the Politically Incorrect Guides, it sells for $19.95 and may be ordered directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking on the links in this message.

- Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

There are a number of other Politically Incorrect Guides. They are well-written, well-researched, and well documented. Each serves as a useful corrective to the overwhelming cultural bias that our current textbooks suffer from. We’ve decided at Greenleaf to carry them all. Here are all 15 of the titles:

Or you can order the Complete Politically Correct Library – all 15 titles – for $250 - a 16% discount (that’s like getting two books free!)

We the People
The Story of Our Constitution
by Lynn Cheney, paintings by Greg HarlinIt is hard for us not to idealize the founding fathers. It is hard for us to put ourselves in their frame of mind. We know that the Republic endured. We know that the peaceful transfer of executive power has been faithfully observed for 220 years across the administrations of 43 presidents. The authors of the constitution were, in fact, embarking on a great experiment in government. Since the overthrow of the Roman Republic in 44 BC, no nation had been able to govern itself without kings, nobles, or warlords. By 1787, six years after Yorktown, and four years after the peace treaty signed with Great Britain, the confederation of former English colonies in North America was failing.

Here is the remarkable introduction by Lynne Cheney:

“When 1787 began, our young country was in turmoil. The central government was unable to pay off debts, there was armed insurrection in Massachusetts, and foreign governments were taking advantage of our weakness. The question of the hour, James Madison wrote, was ‘whether the American experiment was to be a blessing to the world or to blast forever the hopes which the republican cause had inspired.’

The framers of the Constitution made it a blessing, creating a new and stronger American union and flying in the face of prevailing wisdom as they did so. In the eighteenth century, representative government in a nation of vast scale was thought impossible, a recipe for chaos and confusion; but an extended republic based on popular sovereignty was exactly what the Constitution created in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 envisaged. The government based upon it has now endured more than 220 years.

The story of our founding document is an important one for our children to know. It is a tale of persistence, as delegates kept on despite obstacles that at times made their task seem impossible. It is a tale of creativity, with the delegates providing a framework for a government entirely new. It is also a story that makes clear there was nothing inevitable about the Constitution that emerged from the Philadelphia convention. History might have gone otherwise but for the framers’ genius, and we should be grateful for James Madison, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the others who gathered in Philadelphia. We should be grateful as well for men and women such as Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Martin Luther King Jr., who in later centuries took up the work of the founders, making the union formed in 1787 the more perfect one we know today.”

Cheney tells the story in a simple, straight-forward style. The proposal to separate the powers of government into three branches, the fierce debate and compromise over equal votes for each state or proportional representation in the legislative assembly; the call for a chaplain and prayer made by Franklin; and the debate over who would ratify the Constitution. The text has a quotation from a founder on almost every page that provides further insight into the issues. The paintings focus on the characters of the delegates. Gestures, glances, frowns, and extravagant gestures help the reader to understand the fierceness of the debates. There is a marvelous painting on one page of Washington taking the day off to go fishing and another that shows Franklin entertaining visitors in his garden.

The text overall is middle to upper elementary. The large illustrations will capture the attention of younger children if the text is read to them.

We the People by Lynne Cheney is a hardback, 40 pages, full color, $17.99 directly from Greenleaf Press.

- Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center

Just published! And just in time for Thanksgiving.

The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World by Nathaniel Philbrick.

“My first impression of the period consisted of two conflicting ideas: the time-honored tradition of how the Pilgrims came to symbolize all that is good about America, and the now equally familiar modern tale of how the evil Europeans killed the innocent Native Americans. I soon learned that the real-life Indians and the English of the seventeenth century were too smart, too generous, too greedy, too brave – in short, too human – to behave so predictably.”

Philbrick has done a remarkable job capturing the “too human” details about both Pilgrims and Indians in this story. This version is an adaptation the adult non-fiction book that was a New York Times bestseller. That book is worth reading for adults. This adaptation is a great read for upper middle school and high school students who want more details about the Pilgrims’ voyage, encounter with the Indians, survival, and eventual war.

Philbrick focuses on the leaders of the colony, especially elder William Brewster and Governor William Bradford. He also gives us a great deal of detail about the leaders of the New England Indians – Chief Massasoit, and the intriguing Squanto, both of whom emerge as shrewd, complex characters. The tragedy of the story is that Massasoit’s son decided to wage war on the English settlements in 1675, breaking the 55 years of (relative) peace which had been enjoyed between English settlers and Native Americans.

The book is divided into three parts (about 100 pages each): Discovery (1619-1621), Community (1625-1674), and War (1675-1676). The writing is excellent. The tone is matter-of-fact and nuanced. Philbrick is at pains to document and distinguish the good and bad behavior among all the players in this drama. The text is accompanied by an excellent series of maps, and interspersed with photographs of historical artifacts.

I’d recommend this as a great read for high school students studying American history.

The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World
is a hardback, 338 pages. It is available directly from Greenleaf Press for $19.99.

- Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press
Director, Schaeffer Study Center