SuitabookApple Bough
Noel Streatfeild
- Reading
- Read together in short stretches if useful, pausing to talk about what each child enjoys or gives up for music. Check whether the story offers more than the initial family setup.
- Themes
- Talent, practice and schooling: Sebastian is recognised as especially suited to the violin, begins lessons as a young child, practises extensively and cannot attend a normal school. The setup makes musical training central to his routine, but does not establish whether the book endorses or questions its demands.
- A musical family: The Forums are described as a musical household, with parents and children having different relationships to music and the children taught together by a governess. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Sebastian practises for up to four hours a day, and his lessons prevent attendance at a normal school. The book’s view of these demands is not established.