Anna Maria & Maestro Vivaldi

About the only thing really memorable in this work is the art on these pages. This work tells the supposedly true story of Vivaldi and a young violinist living in an orphanage during the time when Vivaldi was writing one of his many masterpieces, Four Seasons.

While there are some nice pictures of violin playing, there are a number of other things that did not sit quite right with me. One of them is that this story is largely rumor and has never been proven. Another issue is that the writer makes no effort to demonstrate the size of the group that would have performed Vivaldi’s work, the era of art galleries they would have lived in, and other inconsistencies throughout the book.

Instead, this is a work that is more geared toward teaching a lesson, even though it does so clunkily, than remaining true to the source. The lesson for young readers, and this is designed for children who are fairly well along in reading on their own or parents reading to their children, is not to give up, to have confidence in yourself, and to love music.