Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Play Mozart Play
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 3 to 5
HarperCollins, 2006 ISBN: 978-0061121814
Mozart was a very special boy. He was a composer and a virtuoso pianist. He was in fact nothing less than a genius and his father took him to many cities all over Europe so that Mozart could play for all kinds of rich, famous, and powerful people. He played all kinds of things in many different ways but poor little Mozart was not allowed to be a little people. He was not allowed to play with other children and he had to practice all the time. And of course he had to play, and play, and play.
In this superb picture book, even the youngest of children will be able to get to know Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They will be able to see how different Mozart’s life was from their own and to appreciate that there must have been times when it was not easy being a child prodigy. Staying indoors to practice for hours and hours must have been difficult for the little boy, but readers will also see that through his music Mozart was able to create a world of his own, a world where he could be creative and free.
Peter Sis has created some truly marvelous illustrations for this book, illustrations which make it possible for young children to get a real sense of what Mozart was like. They will see images from his world and work and they can see how Mozart’s music was, and is, much more than a series of black notes on a page.
At the back of the book the author includes further information about Mozart’s life and his work.
