Ludwig Van Beethoven: Musical Pioneer

This book is a wonderful way to introduce your child to one of the great composers. As the book lays open, there is usually one very large picture and then writing in large print. The whole book is probably a 20 minute read. It does give some detail of Beethoven's rather horrid childhood, but this detail allows the child to understand the composer's work better. I followed this book with Beethoven by Reba Paeff Mirsky, a long chapter book. After my 6 year old and I completed this sequence with both Mozart and Beethoven, she said "Mommy you can hear Beethoven's childhood problems in his music. Mozarts is so calm and sweet. His childhood was easy." I kid you not! Putting a bunch of cds on shuffle, she used this to figure out correctly which songs were by which composer. One mistake she made was Beethoven music modified to make people sleep - in other words Beethoven's music played the way he never intended it to be played. Slight details of the misery of his childhood are key to understanding the beauty he made from his pain.