Tracy Newman: Hi, my name is Tracy Newman, and I'm the author of the book Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin, The Story of Young Itzhak Perlman.

Itzhak Perlman was a musician who I grew up with but didn't necessarily know that much about because when I was growing up, he did things like appear on Sesame Street and make commercials, and he was part of the culture of my everyday life. But I wasn't someone who listened to classical music that much to know what a wonderful musician he is.

When I first started researching about Itzhak Perlman, I took out whatever books I could find about him from the library. But I realized that it really only scratched the surface of who he is. So then I started watching YouTube videos of interviews he had done with people on television. And then the best part was that I started listening to the music that he played and later on conducted. And I realized that if I had that music playing while I was writing, it filled me with a sense of the art and the wonder and the beauty of what he creates. And I hope it guided my words so that they captured a little bit of that wonderful spirit too.

For me, the hardest part of creating the book was focusing the story. There are different ways to write a biography. Some start when someone is born, and they go through their entire life. Some pick a particular moment in that person's life and focus on that and some pick a period of time. There were so many fun stories about Itzhak to write about that it was hard for me to choose. In fact, one of my favorite stories about his childhood is that he competed in a contest and won first place for performing the violin and was the youngest person ever to win that honor, but that success was over shadowed by the fact that while he was waiting for the results, someone came in and stole the violin he had borrowed from his music school. And so the headlines were all about how he had won a competition and lost a violin. And I thought that was such a great story for kids and people to relate to because I lose stuff all the time, and it really wasn't his fault. And to reach that pinnacle of success, but also have something else happen that's out of your control and just all the ups and downs of life. But they found the violin, and I realized that story didn't quite fit into this book.

My hope would be that readers get introduced to a kind of music they may not already be familiar with, and they learn the story of someone who took life's challenges in stride and just learned to deal with them and not let those challenges interfere with fulfilling their dreams and pursuing their passions in life because there are always some things that happen that we may not like or expect, but if we can figure out how to just keep going and focus on our goals, then I think that's the best way to manage.

I'm reading a part of the book that's towards the beginning, and it describes how Itzhak felt when he listened to music and what happened when he got his very first instrument:

When Itzhak listened to music, a vivid rainbow of colors appeared in his mind -- hues from dark green to red to yellow. Music brought Itzhak intense joy. And tears. Itzhak loved it. By three, Itzhak knew -- he wanted more. He had to make music. Young Itzhak had already chosen the instrument whose magical sound he loved best. He begged his parents for a violin. But for an immigrant family whose dinner was often a piece of watermelon and some bread, musical instruments were a luxury. Still Itzhak pestered and pleaded. Finally, his parents bought him a toy violin.

At first little Itzhak laughed with delight. But he quickly recognized that his violin didn't sound like those the master violinists played. His music wasn't as clear as Jascha Heifetz's, as intense as Isaac Stern's, or as enchanting as Ida Haendel's. Disappointed, Itzhak gave it a whack and threw it under the bed.