Star and the Maestro

Dr. Thor Hanson is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Switzer Environmental Fellow, and an award-winning author and biologist. His books include The Triumph of Seeds, The Impenetrable Forest, Feathers, and the children's favorite Bartholomew Quill as well as Star and the Maestro, illustrated by Matt Schu. Thor Hanson's writing has earned many accolades, including the John Burroughs Medal, the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize, and two Pacific Northwest Book Awards. His many media appearances have included NPR's Fresh Air, PRI's The World and Science Friday, The Current on CBC, and Book Lust with Nancy Pearl. He lives with his wife and son on an island in the Pacific Northwest.Matt Schu is the illustrator of Cut!: How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation, My Cat Does Ballet, The Islands of Elsewhere, and Cosmic Collisions: Asteroids vs. Comet. He studied art and design at the University of Oregon and worked as a graphic designer and editorial illustrator before switching his focus to book illustration and fine art. Matt Schu lives in Portland, Oregon.

“Mozart makes beautiful music with Star, a starling who can imitate many kinds of sounds. . . . The story is told in light rhyming verse, and whether or not readers know much about Mozart, they’ll enjoy seeing the ordinary bird triumph over the more vibrant and unusual specimens at the pet store. . . . [This picture book] zeroes in on a delightful, quirky aspect of the famed composer’s life.” — Kirkus Reviews“Tackling music history via a bird’s-eye view, Hanson spotlights the pedigreed pet fad in the Vienna of Mozart. A common starling feels out of place in a shop. . . . But the bird’s skill at mimicry lands it a happy home—and a composition partner—when Mozart hears the starling repeat 17 notes from one of his own composition. . . Accentuating contrast between light and shadow in digitally rendered artwork, Schu threads the black of the starling’s feathers and golden hue of its beak through each illustration, dramatically anchoring the palette” — Publishers Weekly“Writing in verse that rattles along with the lively speed of a Mozart piano sonata, Hanson relates a true, if lightly embroidered, account of how the astonished composer heard a captive starling singing a phrase of his own music and so carried it away from a store for exotic pets back to his busy studio. . . . Notes on the historical encounter, the great composer, the common starling’s powers of mimicry, and related topics close this evocatively elegant, rhythmic commemoration.” — Booklist