Customer Reviews

Mozart Question

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How and when do you introduce the Holocaust to a young child? Can you tell a story about the Holocaust without ever mentioning the word "Jew"? This book, with its lovely watercolor pictures of Venice and subdued brown and gray paintings showing scenes in the camps, skillfully addresses these questions. The story is told through Paolo, who is currently a famous violinist. Paolo shares his story by means of flashbacks, which are revealed while a young journalist is interviewing him. He remembers how his father was the most renowned barber in Venice. Each haircut was an interlude where his father "... would conduct the music of his scissors with his comb." Although Paolo knows his father had been a violinist, his father never plays the instrument and he will not answer his son's questions regarding it. Finally, the boy's mother shows him the violin that she has hidden away on the condition that Paolo stop asking his unremitting questions. Subsequently, one summer evening, Paolo hears the sound of a violin and runs outside in his pajamas to listen. The violinist's name is Benjamin and Paolo sits at the old man's feet as he entertains the audience. They become friends and in the following weeks the child brings his father's violin to Benjamin, who not only repairs it, but secretly teaches the boy how to play it. All the while, the relationship and the violin lessons are a secret -- until Benjamin insists that Paolo reveals the nature of their relationship to his parents. The child is very upset because he feels his parents will be angry with him. What happens next is both an unexpected twist and a very satisfying and surprise ending. The author reveals each "secret" a little at a time until all the puzzle pieces are in place. The story is powerful but is presented in a way that will not frighten a young child. Paolo, the main character, is particularly well drawn, as is the background information about what it was like to survive in the camps. This well written and illustrated book should be an addition to all holocaust literature for children. Ages 9-12. Reviewed by Marge Kaplan

When a young reporter is assigned to interview the famous violinist Paolo Levi, she is told not to ask "the Mozart Question." The problem is that she has no idea what that question is. When see meets Levi, her nerves cause her to babble, and she mentions that she isn't going to ask the "Mozart Question". Instead of immediately ending the interview, Levi unexpectedly tells the story of how he became a violinist, a story that also includes the stories of his parents, who were once violinists themselves, and who used their music to save their lives.

This is a powerful story about the horrors of the Holocaust, and the struggles faced by those who survived. The author doesn't shy away from the brutal reality of the concetration camps, so that while this is a children's book, parental guidance is strongly suggests to ensure that young readers are prepared for this material. These same young readers are likely to come away from this book with lots of questions, so parents also need to be prepared to discuss this topic, as well.

While this book deals with the weighty issues of the Holocaust, it also is a story of survival and of sharing the truth. In the end, these positive messages carry the story, and help to keep it from being overwhelmingly depressing.

i've given this book as a present to quite a few friends. lovely story with nice illustrations.decided it was about time to own it myself!

This short read includes gorgeous illustrations of beautiful Venice and creepy concentration camps. Many young people are aware of the book and movie Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and will have some background knowledge of concentration camps and will relate to this touching story.

I read this story with my 12 year old. It was short (80 pages) and had pictures, but is definitely not a "picture book". The plot line of a young Jewish boy who learns that his parents were forced to play concerts in the concentration camps is a serious one, delicately handled but not sugar-coated at all. It is a good way to delve a little deeper into this horrific portion of history. I recommend it for middle school readers. In fact, it would be a wonderful addition to school curriculums!

In THE MOZART QUESTION, the narrator, a female writer, tells the story of one of her earliest assignments as a writer. After her boss is unable to make the trip to Venice to interview Paolo Levi, one of the world's greatest violinists, and asks the narrator to take the assignment instead. It is the break the narrator has been looking for. Her boss reminds her that of some of the particulars about Levi and sternly admonishes her that she is not to ask "the Mozart question". Levi has played every major composer, but has never publicly played Mozart and anytime a person asks him why, he ends the interview. When meeting Levi, she begins by explaining to him that she's not sure what to ask him since she's been told not to ask him the Mozart question. So, she asks him how he began playing the violin. The story that Levi tells answers how he began as well as the Mozart question. The story is tragic, yet inspiring. It is a story about the horrors of the Holocaust, but is as much about the power of love and music to overcome and redeem even amidst the most horrific and terrible circumstances.

The story of this young adult novella is beautifully told and is woven together like a tapestry. Emotional readers should be forewarned because the story could bring a tear to one's eye. The story is given even more emotional-depth with the water-color illustrations of Michael Foreman. I really enjoyed reading this book. Though it is an inspiring tale, it isn't very difficult to read; I finished the book in less than thirty minutes. Highly recommended as a book for parents to read with their children or for teachers to use for an elementary history lesson.

Michael Morpurgo's THE MOZART QUESTION begins with the narrator, a young female journalist from London, reflecting on the question that she (and certainly many other authors) gets most often: Why did you become a writer? To answer, she reflects on one of her first writing assignments, which she received by accident --- to interview the world's greatest living violinist, Paolo Levi, at his home in Venice.

The narrator is warned by her editor to be sensitive to the legendarily reclusive and eccentric Levi and, above all, not to ask him "the Mozart question." Fortunately for her, she doesn't even know what the Mozart question is. Instead, as she arrives in Venice and sits down with the shabbily elegant Levi in his apartment, she asks the first question that pops into her mind: "What made you pick up a violin and play that first time?"

As it turns out, this is the only question the young reporter needs to ask. This question --- which gets at the heart of Levi's entire history, which embodies his whole approach to making music --- sends Levi off into an intensely personal recollection of his childhood, his family history, and the violin that inspired him to make music in the first place. The result is a story both historically significant and deeply personal, one that readers won't soon forget.

Without giving too much away, young Paolo, at the age of nine, learned as much about the bravery and sacrifices of his parents and others like them as he did about playing the violin in those early years. Morpurgo's story underscores not only the potential of music for bringing people together, strengthening them, and inspiring redemption and miracles, but also the deeply emotional aspect of music, which can bring families together or wrench people apart.

THE MOZART QUESTION is lovingly, thoughtfully illustrated with Michael Foreman's blue-tinged watercolors, which skillfully depict not only the story's dark, tragic heart, but also its redemptive message, conveyed in part through the sunbathed skylines of Venice on the book's endpapers.

Morpurgo's tale is straightforwardly told, almost fable-like in its simplicity and emotional impact. Its simple language and elegant structure would make THE MOZART QUESTION an excellent book for parents and teachers to read with children, opening the door to more questions about family history, historic atrocities, and the miraculous powers of music to resist and overcome even the most shocking evils.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

The Holocaust is the defining darkness at the heart of the 20th Century that we all must remember - and wrestle with -- if we ever hope to find peaceful solutions in the 21st Century. But, the idea of writing a delightful mystery novel for young readers about the Holocaust is a daring challenge, to say the least. These issues are terribly serious and dreadfully tragic.

Michael Morpurgo is equal to the task in "The Mozart Question." In a final note to readers at the end of his new book, he says that he was prompted to weave this tale, in part, by a glimpse one day in Venice of a little boy in his pajamas, sitting on a sidewalk, enraptured by a street musician. This vision of childhood awe came at a time that Morpurgo was thinking about writing for young readers about the horrors of the Holocaust.

I won't spoil the mystery by explaining how he connects those two elements (they boy on the street and the Holocaust) - but he does so in a suspenseful way that will keep young readers turning pages.
This may sound unsettling, like a fairy tale spun from inappropriate materials - but Morpurgo cleverly frames this story in concrete terms that have a ring of truth for modern readers. In the opening pages, for example, there's a young reporter hot on the trail of an interview in Venice that will make global headlines. There's one question - the Mozart question - that this young reporter is forbidden to ask. Of course, that's precisely the question that will arise in the course of the book.
Illustrations by Michael Foreman are gorgeous, rendered in almost ghostly lines that evoke the strong emotions and vivid locations in this tale.

This is the kind of book that could be used with readers - young or old - as a starting point in a class or discussion group about family histories and the Holocaust. But it certainly won't take a school assignment for readers to rocket through this beautifully illustrated novella.

If you hope that your children will to LEARN TO LOVE CLASSICAL MUSIC, to deliberately plant an association between something as horrible as the Holocaust, and MOZART, perhaps the MOST ACCESSIBLE and prolific of classical musicians, does not seem wise.

The Holocaust is NOT a question that has anything to do with MOZART, except in this unfortunate tale.

Morpurgo is a superb author, however I advise parents to skip this book, and try just about any other of Morpurgo's well crafted tales. If you are interested in learning from the Holocaust, there are several other worthwhile books.