The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Book Review of
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,
By Maria Augusta Trapp

Until I first read this book (many years ago), The Sound of Music was my favorite movie (many years ago). It’s always interesting to see how Hollywood can take a book and change it into a movie. Come to find out (from another, later book), Maria wasn’t happy with how they portrayed Captain Von Trapp in the movie…not the Georg she knew and loved. And there were other discrepancies between the original book and the movie. However, I “got over it” and learned to just enjoy both: the book and the movie, as two somewhat different stories. After all, the movie had helped me come to love Catholicism when I was a non-Catholic youth.

While Georg was not portrayed accurately in the movie, Maria herself was definitely the strong-willed, vivacious personality, similar to the way she was portrayed in the movie. The book also covers a wider range of time than the movie, telling all about their lives in America. It chronicles the Trapp family's love of their Catholic faith, their family and their music, as they escaped Nazi-occupied Austria, emigrated across the sea, and sang their way across America. Sometimes sad, sometimes hilariously funny, it’s a good read for adults and teens alike. And if you haven't seen the movie, The Sound of Music, I highly recommend that too.