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  • Published: 1 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9781864714173
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 144

A Certain Music




A fairytale in the tradition of Hans Christian Andersen – heart-warming and enchanting.

A fairytale in the tradition of Hans Christian Andersen – heart-warming and enchanting.

It is 1823 and the child is a loner who spends her time hiding in the Vienna Woods until she spies an old man - a music maker. And so begins an odd friendship which develops through their mutual love of music. The man is composing a new work. It will break new ground. He fears it will be ridiculed and is aware that he is thought mad. He confides in the child who sits for hours watching and listening as he revises and plays. She has a feeling for the music that he cannot fathom. And not only for the music, but for what he is. She knows his pain, his anger, his fear and also his gentleness. Together they give each other the courage to face their critics and dare to be different. A tale of a song written by a man who couldn't hear for a child people thought strange. Yet the song will live forever in the heart and mind of every child where there's nurtured a love of music.

  • Published: 1 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9781864714173
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 144

About the authors

Celeste Walters

Celeste Walters is the author of playscripts for children and adults, novels and picture story books for young readers, texts on developmental drama and the writing of eulogies, and three books of whimsical verse for all ages. She has also written five highly acclaimed novels for young adults. Celeste has been a teacher, an art gallery director, a children's theatre producer and a university lecturer. Currently she divides her time between Melbourne and country New South Wales where she writes, cares for newborns and entertains groups at the University of the Third Age.

Anne Spudvilas

ANNE SPUDVILAS is a multi-award-winning illustrator of children's books and an established portrait painter who also works as a courtroom artist for the Melbourne media. Her first picture book The Race was awarded the Crichton Award for Illustration and Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Honour Book. In 2000 she won CBCA Picture Book of the Year for Jenny Angel and her latest picture book The Peasant Prince has received the NSW and Queensland Premiers' Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Award and CBCA Honour Book. Anne lives and works in Melbourne.