CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1991)
At twelve years of age, Allegra Shapiro is a very talented violinist. In fact, she is spending her summer preparing a Mozart concerto to perform in the Ernest Bloch Young Musicians' Competition, with herself as the youngest competitor. Allegra is also a "normal" 12-year-old, involved in ongoing jousting with her older brother, secretive late-night bicycling, and spending time with her friends. In developing her own approach to the concerto, an interplay of family, self, and old and new friends influence Allegra's personal insight and, ultimately, her musical interpretation. This appealing description of a believable gifted child features a splendid portrayal of a gradual creative process. Co-winner, 1991 CCBC Newbery Discussion. CCBC categories: Fiction For Teenagers; The Arts. 1991, Henry Holt, 249 pages, $15.95. Ages 12 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1991)
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. 1991, Henry Holt, $15.95. Starred Review. © 1991 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Roger Sutton (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July/August 1991 (Vol. 44, No. 11))
Allegra hadn't anticipated facing a summer filled with Mozart's Fourth Concerto in D, but she has just discovered that she has made the finals of an important statewide violin competition to be held on Labor Day. So, the summer becomes Mozart and music festivals and practice and--too much--conversation around the dinner table or on the picnic blanket about various highminded topics: life, lessons, and the Holocaust. While Allegra provides a solid center to the story, some of the surrounding characters speak more for the book's various themes than they do for themselves. There's a passionate, mad soprano who keens for her dead child, and a dancing homeless man, Mr. Trouble, who seeks his lost Waltz Tree: both seem to exist primarily as metaphorical inspiration for Allegra. On the other hand, Allegra's fellow competitors are freshly conceived and spontaneously developed. The story wanders down too many byways, but the prose is often light and fresh, and the qualities of hard practice and delight in music are well-conveyed. The suspense leading up to the competition is carefully developed, and if Allegra's hearing a song dedicated to her on the radio seems a bit out of the blue, it's still a nice ending. Review Code: R -- Recommended. Subjects: Conduct of life. (c) Copyright 1991, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1991, Holt, 249p, $15.95. Grades 5-8.