Book Info
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Hardback80 pages
Author's Website
www.michaelmorpurgo.com/Publisher
Walker Books LtdPublication date
5th November 2007ISBN
9781406306484Children's Author 'Like-for-Like' recommendations
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The Mozart Question
Michael Morpurgo
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Lovereading4kids Price: £5.99
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The Lovereading comment:
This is one of the most moving and eloquently written novels I've read in while. For any musically inclined child from 8 or so upwards then they, and indeed you, can't fail to be incredibly moved and gripped all at the same time as the story unfolds. In addition, any child who has a love of writing and yearns one day to be a journalist then this novel will give them that further boost of determination to get there. The Mozart Question will undoubtedly bring tears to your eyes and Michael Foreman's illustrations are a delight to behold.
Author's Note
It is difficult for us to imagine how dreadful was the suffering that went on in the Nazi concentration camps during the second World War. The enormity of the crime that the Nazis committed is just too overwhelming for us to comprehend. In their attempt to wipe out an entire race they caused the deaths of six million people, most of them Jews. It is when you hear the stories of the individuals who lived through it - Anne Frank, Primo Levi - that you begin to understand the horror just a little better, and to understand the evil that caused it. For me, the most haunting image does not come from literature or film, but from music. I learned some time ago that in many of the camps the Nazis selected Jwish prisoners and forced them to play in orchestras; for the musician it was simply a way to survive. In order to calm the new arrivals at the camps they were asked to serenade them as they were lined up and marched off, many to the gas chambers. Often they played Mozart. I wondered how it must have been for a musician who played in such hellish circumstances, who adored Mozart as I do - what thoughts came when playing Mozart later in life. This was the genesis of my story, this and the sight of a small boy in a square by the Accademia Bridge in Venice, sitting one night, in his pyjamas on his tricycle, listening to a busker. He sat totally enthralled by the music that semed to him, and to me, to be heavenly.
Synopsis
The Mozart Question by Michael MorpurgoLesley is sent to interview violinist Paulo Levi. She is told that she can ask him anything at all except the Mozart question. But it is Paulo himself who decides that it is time for the truth to be told. As the story unfolds, she begins to understand the horror of war, and how a group of musicians survived using the only weapon they had - music.
About The Author
Michael Morpurgo was our Guest Editor in June 2010. Click here to see the books that inspired his writing.
Michael Morpurgo has written over one hundred books and won many awards. In 1976 Michael and his wife Clare started the charity Farms For City Children, which aims to relieve the poverty of experience of young children from inner city and urban areas. In 1999 they were awarded the MBE for their work in creating these farms and in 2006 Michael received an OBE.
His novel War Horse has been adapted into a hugely successful and critically acclaimed West End play and a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Michael is a tireless champion for children’s books and was formerly the Children’s Laureate. Loved by children, teachers and parents alike, Michael Morpurgo has won the Whitbread Award, the Smarties Award, the Circle of Gold Award, the Children’s Book Award and has been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal four times.
Anthony Horowitz on Michael Morpurgo:
'Michael Morpurgo is the most solid, classical of children's authors. He sits outside the series-driven blockbusters so beloved of publishers nowadays: he hasn't created a Harry Potter or an Alex Rider – and I admire him for resisting that. We are opposite sides of the same coin and, although his work has never influenced mine, I admire the eloquent, considered voice of his best books. He has an unerring moral compass – his schoolteacher past has never quite left him – and books such as War Horse and The Butterfly Lion have a strong social concience and an honesty that makes them universal.' (The Guardian)
Why not CLICK HERE to take a peek at Michael’s 10 Rules for Writing.
or Click here to read a Q&A with the author from top children's publisher Egmont.
Michael is the inaugural President of the Historical Writers Association starting from Autumn 2011. The Historical Writers' Association (www.thehwa.co.uk) will celebrate its first anniversary in October. It was founded to bring social and professional support to writers of historical fiction and non-fiction, publishers, agents and booksellers, all bound both by their common interest in historical books and by the sense of community that comes from a shared obsession.
Since its creation, the Historical Writers' Association has launched the first Festival of Historical Writing in association with English Heritage as part of their Festival of History at Kelmarsh in Northamptonshire this July. In September, a partnership was announced with Goldsboro Books to launch a new literary prize, the HWA/Goldsboro Crown for Debut Historical Fiction, the first of which will be presented at Goldsboro's History in the Court Festival next year on 27th September 2012.
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