This is the actual book, written in 1949, which inspired the script of the movie the Sound of Music. It is Maria and her family's autobiography, covering some early details of the Captain and Maria's separate lives and the history of the family from Maria's position as teacher to the young Maria all the way through the late 1940s. After reading the World of the Trapp Family (reviewed below), I finally picked up this book which I had started to read years earlier, but never finished.

I found this a really delightful and engaging book. Maria, who in not a professional writer and is writing in her second language, comes across with a style that is a little unusual, but very charming and personable. In many little details, the movie is surprisingly faithful to the book, but in other ways, it actually understates rather than exaggerates some of the amazing aspects of the story. This book also goes well beyond the scope of the movie, even when looked at chronologically. There are many reasons to recommend the book, but my favorite aspect of the book is how Maria comments and reflects (in a very Catholic way, may I add) upon the events surrounding her and her family - the providence of God in many parts of their lives, the importance of music in culture, her thoughts on the discipline of children, some of the terrible events and persons of Europe during World War II, and on and on. Although I was reading the book to myself (and there are many reflections of interest to Catholic mothers), there were many, many little fascinating and humorous stories within the story that I had to share with my husband and children.