Magic Tree House: Eve of the Emperor Penguin, Moonlight on the Magic Flute

Magic Tree House: Eve of the Emperor Penguin, Moonlight on the Magic Flute by Mary Pope Osborne

Eve of the Emperor Penguin

They go to Antartica and are about to go on an expedition up a tall mountain. However, the leaders discover they are kids and they need to be sent back to their parents. Instead they get into trouble and get trapped in an ice cave. They use magic to get out and communicate with penguins. The penguins offer a quite orphan to them. They offer this to Merlin to make him happy. This is not the best of stories in the series.

Moonlight on the Magic Flute

They go back to Austria to try to find an artist. They are sidetracked playing with a boy named Wolfie. I just want to nudge them to say "hey, that is probably Mozart!" Sure enough it was. Jack had a magic flute that he was able to play to help get them out of trouble. They later see that Mozart wrote a Magic Flute work named after it. This one was better than the penguin one.

The Kingdom of Back

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

This historical fiction book tells the story of Mozart and his older sister. They were both musical prodigies (though Wolfgang had the better ear for music.) The also have an imaginary "Kingdom of Back". The kingdom plays a more significant role in this book, with Mozart's sister spending more time there and even exploring chances to hurt her brother so she will have fame. (She had been hurt that he gets the fame, especially when their dad passes off some of her compositions in his name.) She decides against hurting her brother and does support him. Later, after his death, she hopes to support his biography. It is an interesting historical fiction book that spends a bit too much time in fantasy.

Mozart: The Reign of Love

Mozart is regularly regarded as one of the all time best composers. He was a child prodigy with perfect pitch driven by his musician father. Despite passing away in his 30s, he left behind a significant body of work.

Mozart: The Reign of Love goes through the basic biographical timeline of Mozart's life. However, it also delves deeply into the analysis of his key works. (It would be great to have an accompanying Spotify playlist.) I found myself sometimes consulting Wikipedia as I got lost in the music details and wanted a quick rundown of life history. On the history side, Mozart is portrayed as no so much of the playboy he was made out to be in Amadeus. (Interestingly, Amadeus was not a name he frequently used. Mozart was multilingual, and this was merely a translation of one of his middle names. It only became part of his canonical name after later biographers latched on to it.) Wolfgang did delight in scatological joke-making. However, he was also extremely dedicated to his work. He tended to write music more for his own pleasure than purely for commercial reasons. (However, he loved to live to good life, and was often desperate for more money.) He was well respected in his time as a brilliant musician and composer. However, he also was prone to overwork, and often got sick. The medical system was often a hinderance more than a help, thus was not able to prevent his early death.

Mozart's Starling

What is a Starling? They appear to be a bird that is native to Europe that was imported to North America, only to reproduce excessively. They are seen more often as a pest, and can freely "disposed of". However, they reproduce so rapidly, that event hunting them will not significantly impact the population. However, they also have musical ability, and can attempt to mimic human sounds. Mozart had heard one that appeared to be singing one of his to-be-published compositions. He decided he had to have it, and adopted it as a member of his family, even giving it a complete funeral when it passed away.
Mozart's Starling is part history of starlings and part history of the life of Mozart. The author had adopted a starling, and watched it grow. She also studied the history of Mozart and his playful personality. The two seemed to go together well. Mozart had fun with his craft and could be a jokester. The starling may have been a great companion. Mozart's former apartment building remains a housing block in Vienna today. (Though other areas in his life have been paved over.) The book provides an interesting history of Mozart's life. Though it is by no means exhaustive. (The focus is, after all, on the relationship with the bird.)