Star: The Bird Who Inspired Mozart
Star: The Bird Who Inspired Mozart
Soon, Mozart and Star became inseparable. They worked together, played together and sang together day and night.
Some thought this new friendship between a great musician and a common bird was a little strange…
“What an undignified pet,” huffed a student.
But Mozart paid no attention. He knew Star was a virtuosa in her own right.
Based on the true story of Mozart and his companion starling, Star: The Bird Who Inspired Mozart tells the loving tale of the mysterious encounter the world-renowned composer had with a simple bird who knew how to sing one of his melodies. The catch is that the tune the bird was singing was part of one of Mozart’s still unreleased piano concertos. How the starling learned the song, in reality, is unknown, but that is where imagination comes in. Star: The Bird Who Inspired Mozart extrapolates the real-life tale and tells the story of the bird, Star, before meeting Mozart and how this chance encounter brought them together.
Imagining a little starling who always liked to sing and mimic sounds from the streets of 18th-century Vienna, the award-winner author Mireille Messier builds a lively tale of music and unexpected encounters. In this historical fiction, Messier provides child readers with a chance to learn about this interesting and fun encounter in Mozart’s life, sparking curiosity about the musical world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a ludic way. Not uncommon for works of historical fiction, the author also leaves a note for the reader in the form of endpapers, telling the details of this factual encounter, including the titles of some of the works Mozart created while in the companion of Star. Adding to the playfulness of the tale, Star: The Bird Who Inspired Mozart presents speech bubbles to illustrate the starling’s interaction around the city, bringing a graphic novel trait to the picture book.
Complementing the lively tale of Mozart and Star’s encounter, the illustrations of Matte Stevens are bright and colourful. Working with poster color, a vibrant yet opaque type of paint, Stevens captures the vivacity of Vienna while still keeping the characters simple and the picture book playful. With a mix of full-bleed spreads and single-page illustrations, Stevens’ colourful and funny art is the perfect medium to share this story about the love for art found in simple encounters.
Theresa Tavares is the co-author of Contemporary Canadian Picture Books: A Critical Review for Educators, Librarians, Families, Researchers & Writers and has a professional background in publishing.