The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart

Kelly L. Green is the Secretary of the Ontario Federation of Teaching
Parents, the past editor of CBRA’s Children’s Literature edition,
and the past president of the Toronto & District Parent Co-operative
Preschool Corporation.

The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart transports the reader to the 18th
century and the courts of the crowned heads of Europe. Twelve-year-old
Nannerl Mozart, older sister to Wolfgang Amadeus, is already a musical
prodigy, but she really wants to compose. Her father, however, won’t
let her learn certain instruments (they’re not for women) and
doesn’t take her desire to compose seriously.

Barbara Nickel’s prose is a pleasure to read. A musician herself, she
fills the book with music and sound (e.g., Nannerl “turned the handle
of the coffee grinder and listened to the crunch of the coffee beans”;
she hears his voice “sliding above the chatter, warm and full as a pot
of thick soup”).

This fictional story, which uses many historical details, is not just a
fascinating look at the life of a talented young woman whose life became
a historical footnote; it is also the wittiest retort I have come across
to the old canard “Where are all the great women composers and
painters?” Highly recommended.