Mozart Tonight

Here's a book that reads like a movie. From the opening shot (an aerial view of the Prague Opera House, lit up for the premiere of Mozart's Don Giovanni ) on to a quick closeup of the composer and his wife, through the long flashback to the composer's birth in Salzburg, remarkable childhood and debt-ridden but immensely creative adult life, readers are treated to a succession of sumptuous visual images, accompanied by an absorbing story line. Downing has chosen to present the tale in the first person, a strategy that slightly blurs the line between biography and fiction, but empowers the subject with a sense of immediacy. Her luminous watercolors are filled with the kinds of detail--architectural fine points, period costume, even the outrageous hairstyles of the day--that are obviously the fruit of extensive research. As an introduction to the man and his music, this is a winner in every way. Ages 5-8. (Apr.)