When I was young, one of the big events in my household was when The Sound of Music came on every year around Christmas time. My parents loved the movie, my siblings loved the movie, I loved the movie. We all yodeled right along with Maria and the von Trapp children during the marionette show and knew all the words to every tune. I knew a children’s biography of Maria von Trapp was published a few years ago but kept forgetting to purchase it for my library until yesterday when Maria von Trapp: Beyond the Sound of Music by Candice Ransom arrived. I grew up near Vermont where the family eventually settled and had heard all the stories about what a hard woman Maria was in reality so I was interested to see how she would be portrayed in this book.

Based largely on Maria’s own writings (I didn’t even know she’d authored books), it chronicles her life highlighting a lonely childhood and an abusive foster family, her years in the convent and as a governess to the von Trapp children, the eventual marriage to Georg von Trapp and the family’s success as a touring chorale group. It’s a great read for kids, not too heavy and only brief mentions made of Maria’s temper and the family’s problems. Only problem is now the soundtrack to the movie is stuck in my head.

~posted by Theresa