With the same thoughtful attention to original characterization that we saw in Probably Still Nick Swansen (1988), Wolff now offers a book for a slightly younger audience. Allegra, 12, describes the summer she spends preparing for a prestigious young musicians' competition in her home state of Oregon. When, against considerable odds, she becomes a finalist, both Allegra's loving musician parents and her empathetic teacher leave the decision of whether to proceed to her. Allegra chooses, almost as a whim, to go on--and then is plunged into a period of self-doubt and self-discovery inspired both by her wonderfully evoked creative interaction with the violin concerto she's preparing and by her relationships with family, friends, fellow competitors, and even ``Mr. Trouble,'' a strange, sadly disabled man who shows up to dance at outdoor concerts where Allegra serves as a page-turner. A luminously realized character, Allegra is gifted not only musically but in her sensitive, intelligent responses to events- -an authentic range of joy, anger, and terror that are both characteristic of her age and unique to her. Her season of discovery--of Mozart, her own roots, and the creative balance between life's traumas and trivia--marks a fine achievement. (Fiction. 12+)
