LORD OF THE NUTCRACKER MEN

London-born Steven Crossley creates the sounds of war--guns, airplanes, soldiers' pain--as he reads letters sent to 10-year-old Johnny by his dad, a British toy-maker turned soldier. Horrors of war reach the muddy backyard where Johnny uses his hand-carved wooden soldiers to play out the battles his beloved father faces in the trenches of France during WWI. German accents of the enemy are performed with equal excellence as the listener is pulled deeper and deeper into the suffering and despair all soldiers feel as they confront war's agonies. D.P.M. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 02]