At three, Mozart heard his older sister play the clavier and copied her. At four, he began to write music, and, at five, he taught himself to play the violin. Soon their father toured them across Europe. Stanley vividly depicts royal adulation in Salzburg and abroad, travel discomforts of the 18th century and the rise and fall of fame, never stinting on family tensions or the hard work of making music as she covers her subject’s brief life. Her exceptional paintings are done in egg tempera, a medium that makes for glowing, stylized images, and she intensifies that formal, stately look by presenting her visual account as a puppet play. All the figures appear as if made of cardboard, with strings directing their movement. Bars of Mozart’s music decorate the pages, and asterisk-like musical notes in the text lead the eye to small scrolls, held by puppet putti, that explain such terms as “patron” or “libretto.” An excellent introduction that will lead older children (and adults) to the music. (author’s notes, chronology, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)
