THE MOZART SEASON

With the same thoughtful attention to original characterization that we saw in Probably Still Nick Swansen (1988), Wolff now offers a book for a slightly younger audience. Allegra, 12, describes the summer she spends preparing for a prestigious young musicians' competition in her home state of Oregon. When, against considerable odds, she becomes a finalist, both Allegra's loving musician parents and her empathetic teacher leave the decision of whether to proceed to her. Allegra chooses, almost as a whim, to go on—and then is plunged into a period of self-doubt and self-discovery inspired both by her wonderfully evoked creative interaction with the violin concerto she's preparing and by her relationships with family, friends, fellow competitors, and even ``Mr. Trouble,'' a strange, sadly disabled man who shows up to dance at outdoor concerts where Allegra serves as a page-turner. A luminously realized character, Allegra is gifted not only musically but in her sensitive, intelligent responses to events- -an authentic range of joy, anger, and terror that are both characteristic of her age and unique to her. Her season of discovery—of Mozart, her own roots, and the creative balance between life's traumas and trivia—marks a fine achievement. (Fiction. 12+)