Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)

The first few pages explain what the musical climate was like in Mozart's life and explains how people used music for entertainment purposes. This is brief and a very good opening to put Mozart's life in perspective. The rest of the book is a full span of Mozart's life. Unlike other books for children about Mozart, the fact that Mozart was a boy genius is not the main content of the book. Oddly, Mozart's children are never mentioned. Mozart's marriage is briefly mentioned as is Mozart's death.

I have mixed feelings about the illustrations. I appreciated that the illustrations documented the various time periods of Mozart's life. I loved the illustrations that were photographs, fine drawings, or copies of fine paintings of the places Mozart visited, of Mozart and his family, and scenes of his operas. I did not at all like the eight cartoons whose illustrations and accompanying text were sarcastic and silly. These eight cartoons were completely out of character with the text of the book and I didn't appreciate them at all. My children and I have enjoyed other books by this author that did not have dumb cartoons and jokes. My children, aged 4 and 6 haven't needed these silly and sometimes insulting jokes to make the subject matter enjoyable. The interesting biography's text and other illustrations are high quality and are better off without these cartoons. The cartoons downgrade my rating to a 4.

I recommend this book and others by Mike Venezia to teach young children about important people in history.


Great book!   February 26, 2006
H. Gould (NE)
We used this book with elementary students in our after school program. Since this year Mozart celebrated a special birthday, we decided to call our class Mozart Mania. First, the students purchased a copy of this book and read it. During our first after school session, the students watched the video The Magic Flute. For their second session, we reviewed Mozart's life by talking about the book, and then we played jeopardy game based on the book's content. The children were divided into three teams, had hand-held buttons to push, just like the real jeopardy game. The book was easy to read and loved by the students. Our third activity was to take the children to a Mozart concert played by the Lincoln Symphony. The book was a hit!


interesting and funny   February 8, 2008
moviefanatic
I recommend all of these children's "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers" books. They are chocked full of information along with hilarious cartoons which keep a kid interested! Moviemaniac


Good Introduction   July 16, 2008
Sara H (California)
Like all of Venezia's books, this is a great introduction to the musician. The story is in simple to understand language so young children can easily grasp what is being explained. The only caution I would give is in regards to the "comics." Considering a few incidents I've had with my preschool aged children, I would advise people to make sure to emphasize the make believe aspect of these parts when reading them to the younger children.

For older children it is a great music appreciation lesson if you add some listening afterwards. With this book on Mozart I'd recommend listening to and reading about one of his opera's since at one point these are singled out for attention.