LITERATURE + LECTURES

Brazos Bookstore is pleased to welcome Diane Stanley author of Mozart: The Wonder Child: A Puppet Play in Three Acts, for a book signing and discussion, Thursday, February 5, at 6:00 p.m.

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart was only three years old -- not much bigger than his name -- on the day his life changed forever. So begins this vivid biography about one of the most legendary prodigies in history. Award-winning author and illustrator Diane Stanley engagingly tells the story of a brilliant boy who grew up to be a complex and often troubled young man -- a man who composed some of the most beautiful music of all time. With stunning and expressive illustrations, she portrays Mozart's turbulent life as a marionette show, inspired by the famous Salzburg Marionette Theatre, using an innovative artistic approach to present the life of a renowned musical genius.

In concise and lyrical prose, Stanley presents an honest and sympathetic portrait of the boyhood and tragically short adulthood of a composer whose music has lived on for more than two hundred years.

Diane Stanley is the recipient of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, as well as numerous other honors. She is an accomplished novelist, biographer, picture book author, and illustrator. She has written eleven other picture book biographies, about figures as diverse as Shaka, the king of the Zulus; Michelangelo; Shakespeare; and Joan of Arc. Diane Stanley lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Photo by Karen Sachar.