Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Famous Children: Beethoven
Illustrator: Susan Hellard
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 7 to 10
Barron’s Educational Series, 1994 ISBN: 978-0812019964
Ludwig Van Beethoven lived in the city of Bonn in Germany with his parents and his two brothers. He was quite an ordinary little boy who got into scrapes, and was bad at his studies especially mathematics. There was one thing that he was good at though and that was music. In fact he was exceptionally good. Ludwig?s father was a singer and also gave his son music lessons. He was terribly strict and by today?s standards could be said to be quite unkind to his son. Certainly he saw that Ludwig had enormous potential and he thought nothing of making use of it. Before long Ludwig was giving his first concert. He was only seven years old and everyone was comparing Ludwig to the other child musical genius, Mozart. When Ludwig was in his teens he was lucky enough to meet with and play for Mozart. The great man was not very impressed at first. Then Ludwig took a simple melody and began to compose around it. Mozart was amazed at the performance.
This simple little book does a wonderful job at showing the reader how the young Beethoven lived his early years and how he was both a little boy and a musical genius. It is interesting to read about the funny things he got up to with his brothers and also about the very demanding life his father set for him on his journey towards becoming a great musician. With easy text and cheerful illustrations this is a lively introduction to the life of one of the greatest musicians and composers of all time. This is one of the books in the "Famous Children" series.
