For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart

In an intimate tribute to musical prodigy Maria Anna Mozart (sister of Wolfgang Amadeus), Rusch organizes biographical passages into sonata movements, with musical terms used to mark events in Maria's life. When they were children, Wolfgang and Maria played recitals together all over Europe. But eventually Maria is left behind, later raising a family, but still devoted to the piano. An air of sadness permeates: in a section titled "Fermata (In which everything stops)," Maria's piano warps in the frigid weather, and in "Cadenza," Maria weeps for Wolfgang, who dies "so young." Rusch's rich prose and Johnson and Fancher's lavishly detailed collages—melding paint, paper, fabrics, and weathered musical notation—seamlessly blend to form a moving portrait of an unsung musician. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)