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Summary
Summary
Listen.
A little boy named
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
is playing the piano.
Look.
He is playing backward!
He is playing blindfolded!
Imagine.
What must his life be like?
Play, Mozart, play!
Acclaimed artist Peter S s introduces very young children to the child genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in this picture book tribute to the beauty of listening, looking, imagining, and -- most of all -- playing!
Author Notes
Peter Sis was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1949 and attended the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. He began his career as a filmmaker and won the Golden Bear Award at the 1980 West Berlin Film Festival for an animated short. He has also won the Grand Prix Toronto and the Cine Golden Eagle Award, and in 1983 collaborated with Bob Dylan on You Got to Serve Somebody. His film work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 1982 Sis was sent to Los Angeles to produce a film for the 1984 Winter Olympics. But the film project was canceled when Czechoslovakia and the entire Eastern bloc decided to boycott the Olympics. Ordered by his government to return home, Sis decided to stay in the United States and was granted asylum. Sis then met Maurice Sendak who introduced him to children's books, and he moved to New York City in 1984 to begin a career in children's literature.
Sís earned quick acclaim with the publication of the 1986 Newbery Medal Winner, The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman, for which he did the illustrations. Sis is a five-time winner of The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year.. Komodo! and A Small Tall Tale from the Far Far North were each named a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book, and he has won a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal for Komodo! and a Silver Medal for The Three Golden Keys. Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei was a 1997 Caldecott Honor Book, as was Tibet Through the Red Box. Sis has also received a MacArthur Fellowship
Sis' editorial illustrations have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, and many other magazines in the United States and abroad. He has published nearly 1,000 drawings in The New York Times Book Review. He has designed many book jackets and posters, including, in 1984, the famous poster for Milos Forman's Academy Award-winning motion picture Amadeus. He has also completed a mural for the Washington/Baltimore Airport, a poster for the New York City subway system, and a stage set for the Joffrey Ballet. His work has been exhibited in Prague, London, Zurich, Hamburg, Los Angeles, and New York in both group and one-man shows.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Recognizing his son's talent at a very young age, Mozart's stern father resolutely "turned him into a child sensation!" The facts of the musician's childhood are familiar to many, but what sets this biographical picture book apart is its skill in introducing a world master to children in a way that is emotionally resonant, easily understood, and remarkably indelible. S's unerringly chooses details that will have the most relevance for his audience and then selects the cleverest means of illustrating them. The cover depicts the child Mozart playing the piano by turning handsprings on the keys, simultaneously playing and playing. His father, who dominated his life, is represented in dark silhouette, his authoritarian finger raised, looming over a tiny boy whose feet do not even touch the floor as he plays. Mozart's triumphant childhood concert tours through Europe are presented in trademark S's fashion, each city painted in miniature within a bubble superimposed on a map; the royalty before whom he played are depicted in small decorative fans. On most spreads, Mozart's shock of red hair and bright red vest give the diminutive prodigy the most visual weight and render him conspicuous. Illustrations give a hint of a unique boy who, despite a childhood of narrow restrictions, was released by the freedom he found in his music and his imagination. The clear, brief, readable text is augmented by a biographical afterword.-Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Old Greenwich, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sis's (Starry Messenger) whimsical imagination is in full play here as he presents an intriguing if somewhat unsettling portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's unconventional childhood. After learning that "His father turned him into a child sensation!" readers repeatedly view the man's hovering specter, represented by an often oversize, dark silhouette sternly wagging a finger at his young son as he commands him to "Practice, Mozart, practice!" The pressure placed on this young prodigy will not be lost on kids: rather than play with children, Mozart "played day and night. He played in his imagination. He played in his dreams. He played for his entire life." The text is minimal, taking a back seat to Sis's inventive, lively and eclectic black line and watercolor art. He incorporates a wild array of perspective, color, texture and imagery. In one striking, surreal spread, in which the youngster relentlessly practices the piano (while his father lurks, sentinel-like, at the door), objects from the room waft from the score he is playing, transformed into dreamlike images: a flute sprouts wings, a wax- covered candelabra acquires facial features, a cup and saucer spring to life. And, hauntingly, readers view a man's head submerged in water, only the eyes visible-perhaps a clue to the boy's sentiments about his demanding parent? A concluding biographical sketch offers some astounding particulars underscoring Mozart's genius: he learned his first musical piece in only 30 minutes just three days before he turned five, wrote his first composition that same year and played at European courts at the age of six. A virtuoso performance from a true maestro of his craft. Ages 3-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Preschool) A barely biographical celebration of the composer and, more generally, a celebration of the spirit of imagination play themselves out over thirty-two pages. The austere, classical lines of S+s's pictures, palely washed with cool colors, decorate an abbreviated text that outlines Mozart's busy, driven life as a child prodigy, performing stunts like playing the piano blindfolded or sitting backwards. Mozart, however, did not get to ""play with the other children,"" as his only ""play"" was on the piano to which his father insisted he attend (""Practice, Mozart, practice!""). But here, paradoxically, is where the book finally blooms, as small, eccentric characters dance across the music pages and a sky of even more fanciful figures issues forth from the music made by Mozart's fingers. Another page turn, and the color comes on strong in a gloriously packed double-spread tableau from what seems to be a remix of The Magic Flute and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges. The tousled, titian-haired young musician is a wide-eyed and sympathetic visual focus, but the pages are in the main too primly diagrammed and don't move effectively from spread to spread. The declarative tone of the text (""Mozart played day and night. He played in his imagination. He played in his dreams. He played for his entire life"") keeps the composer at a remove. An afterword fills in facts about Mozart's life; oddly, it contradicts a key point of the main text with an example of the boy playing, away from the piano, with his sister. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, S"s beautifully harmonizes words and illustration in a delightful and accessible biography of the composer for the picture-book audience. Fan motifs depict Mozart performing for the elite of Europe, while circle motifs highlight European cities where he and his sister played. Mozart's father is portrayed in black pen-and-ink that recalls S"s's poster for the Broadway production of Amadeus. The counterpoint of the black and white for the voice of the father and watercolors in bright blues, reds and yellows for Mozart are highly effective. Images such as a trumpeting elephant for forte, Pamina as a feline soprano and Sarostro as a bass candle illustrate musical terms. These images return and grow in embellishment in two imaginative double-spreads as Mozart plays the piano for a lively rehearsal and the characters then perform The Magic Flute on stage, musical notes swirling about and above. Play a little Mozart and let readers enjoy this feast for the ears and eyes. (Picture book/biography. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
K-Gr. 3. Sis follows Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei 0 (1996) and The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin0 (2003) with another picture-book biography, aiming this time for a slightly younger audience. The simple, brief words focus on Mozart's childhood. Inset scenes, some cleverly tucked into the folds of handheld fans, show the prodigy performing for Europe's great courts. Young children may not have the context to understand some spreads, particularly the clever illustrations for musical terminology. An appended glossary of those terms would have helped (an accompanying CD would have been even better). What children will connect with most are scenes of Mozart's father (pictured as an authoritarian black silhouette) juxtaposed with full spreads of Mozart's glorious musical daydreams of dancing instruments and animals, which may remind children of their own playful, imagined worlds. A final one-page biography adds more background. Along with Loriot's retelling of Peter and the Wolf 0 (1986), this is an excellent title to introduce classical music and the stories it can tell. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2006 Booklist
