Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia

This book is so great! My 8 yr old devoured it and even sat down at the piano to try and play the songs that were put into the book. It was so fun to watch her learn and read about a famous composer and then learn to relate to him. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a child interested in music and who loves reading. It was very well written for a young reader and kept her well engaged.

Beautiful drawings and great details

Wonderful story about the life of JS Bach. The illustrations are sweet too.

Good history at a simple level

Great companion for our classical music study.

A fictionalized account of Bach's life. Much of the information is correct, but not all. Notably, many of the pieces included in the book that say they were written by JSB were not--they were *collected* by him for the Anna Magdalena Bach Book, but that is not the same thing.The book itself is not as inaccurate as the blurb, though, which mentions "...his adult life: how he helped his wife Magdalena put the twenty children to bed every night." That would have been quite a trick! Since the children were not all alive at the same time (of his 20 children, 10 died in childhood, and many in infancy or early childhood--one lived only a few hours). Of course his older children were not Anna Magdalena's, either. Probably their own mother put those ones to bed. If one plays fast and loose with some details, it makes the reader wonder about all the others.Bach the man was extraordinary enough that his life and accomplishments don't need any exaggeration. It's hard enough to remain accurate when one is trying--but I do feel one should at least try!

I plan on using this book (and others by the same authors) with middle schoolers in a Lutheran school Music class. Apparently it also comes with a study guide. My only complaint is, where is the accompanying CD? The excerpts of musical scores included all say "Track 1" or "Track 10" on them, which means to me that there must have been/be an accompanying music disc.The text is large, probably simple enough for 3rd graders to read. I like Mary Greenwalt's illustrations, in black and white, of which there is one on every page or couple of pages.This book was originally published in 1937 and I don't think it has changed since.A good resource for meaty information on Bach, for children.

Love this series and all of Opal Wheelers books.