Minim the Mouse Meets Mozart In A New Children’s Book

The children’s book series “Little Stories of Great Composers” introduces children to classical music through a mouse named Minim. In the series’ first book, “That’s My Piano, Sir!,” Minim meets a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who plays an impromptu concert on a loading dock in Vienna, Austria.

Author Ana Gerhard says she takes the stories from actual events in the composers’ lives. She explained to “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes that letters written by Leopold Mozart, the composer’s father, gave her the idea for the first book.

“He wrote to a friend that when they arrived in Vienna, little Wolfgang attracted the attention of the customs agent … with his little violin and that he played and that the customs agent was enchanted and very happy with little Wolfgang,” she says.

The series continues with stories about Antonio Vivaldi, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Niccolò Paganini, Joseph Haydn, and Franz Schubert. Each book comes with a CD (and a downloadable option) so readers can hear the music along with Minim. The works are performed by the renowned ensemble I Musici de Montreal.