I Am Mozart, Too: The Lost Genius of Maria Anna Mozart

by Audrey Ades, Adelina Lirius (Illustrator)

Overview

To everyone who has heard of my famous younger brother but has never heard of me.

I Am Mozart, Too is a picture book biography about Wolfgang's older sister, Maria Anna Mozart, who was a child prodigy and a secret composer, perfect for Women's History Month.

Nannerl and Wolfie love playing the harpsichord together. They are so talented, the Mozart siblings perform all over Europe for packed audiences in beautiful concert halls. Even Empress Maria Theresa requests that they stop in Vienna to play especially for her.

But then Nannerl does something naughty: She starts writing music of her own. Papa fumes. Girls are not allowed to compose! Girls belong behind the curtain.

While Wolfie’s solo career takes flight, Nannerl must settle for a life offstage. But it doesn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams in secret.

With vivid, sweeping art by Adelina Lirius, author Audrey Ades tells the powerful true story of a talented, ambitious girl who has been hidden from history—a girl who was and always will be a genius, too.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374314767
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.88(w) x 11.12(h) x 0.33(d)
Lexile:	AD570L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Audrey Ades grew up in New England and holds degrees in theater and psychology. She is the author of Judah Touro Didn't Want to Be Famous and The Reverend and the Rabbi. She lives in South Florida with her husband, son, and persnickety Pomeranian, Cookie.

Adelina Lirius is an illustrator based in Stockholm, Sweden. She loves painting imaginary scenes, portraying nature, and depicting the different cultures she grew up with. Adelina is the illustrator of a picture book adaptation of The Secret Garden and The Fort.

Editorial Reviews

"A must-buy for any collection. Not only is this a story that needs to be shared, but the back matter educates young readers on critical reading distinctions." — School Library Journal, starred review

"This empathically rendered portrayal of a lesser-known musical wunderkind, with fanciful gouache and digital art by Lirius that visualizes music’s flow, highlights the figure’s talent and passion while asking whether her legacy could have been more extensive." — Publishers Weekly

"The gouache and digital illustrations . . . are sublime, painted in delicate shades with whimsical touches and flowing floral scroll motifs." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2022-01-14
Discover the lost genius of Maria Anna Mozart.

Ades and Lirius’ picture-book biography tells the story of the older sister of great classical music composer and pianist Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Maria, nicknamed Nannerl, narrates the story, recounting how her musical family life inspired her early longing to make music. During her childhood, her father taught her to play the harpsichord. She explains that “Wolfgang always wanted to do everything I did, so Papa taught him, too.” Both children showed prodigious aptitude and spent years performing across Europe. However, the custom of the time precluded women from public performance, never mind musical composition, so as Nannerl grew older, her father arranged for her to marry, bringing her short-lived music career to an end. Nevertheless, Nannerl’s passion for music never died. The book spends little time developing the relationships between its central characters, especially the complex one between Nannerl and her father, in reality not half so tyrannical a figure as the story makes him out to be. The narrative is rather limited in scope, omitting certain key aspects of Nannerl’s biography. The prose is lyrical in its simplicity but otherwise unremarkable; the gouache and digital illustrations, however, are sublime, painted in delicate shades with whimsical touches and flowing floral scroll motifs. The backmatter explains that some liberties were taken in creating this work of “creative nonfiction” and provides biographical and reference information, including a timeline and glossary. All characters are White.

Interesting enough but not particularly impactful. (Picture-book biography. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews