What a Performance

By Val Neubecker

Uh-oh, Cub is in big trouble!  He's been caught doing something he shouldn't be doing, and now he's going to have to make up for it.

But Cub has come up with a great idea. The jungle animals will form an orchestra to play 'Happy Birthday' for his mother. The way-out descriptions of the instruments, selecting who will play each one and the difficulties of playing them are all hilarious. Imagine a giraffe playing a double bass and a zebra on a trumpet. What could possibly go wrong?

How will the performance turn out, particularly with a couple of trouble-makers in the wings?

Along the way, learn about the instruments in the four sections of a symphony orchestra.

A story for 6-10 year-olds or can be read to younger children.

(4,675 words)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Val Neubecker
• Release date: Apr 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393837961

Val Neubecker

Val lives in Perth, Australia. She wrote scripts and songs for a theatre restaurant for 18 years and has had three children’s books published.  Poems, short stories and plays have been published in the NSW School Magazine and NZ School Journal. She recently diversified into music and has a published book of children’s Christmas songs, ‘Ho! Ho! Ho! & Other Christmas Songs’, for which she composed the music and wrote the lyrics.  She has also written a children’s Christmas musical. Val is the Poetry Coordinator for Creative Connections, an organisation where poets write poems to artworks created by artists with disabilities.

Book preview

Highly respected Western Australian music guru, Prue Ashurst, has read the manuscript and is satisfied that the descriptions and playing of the instruments are accurate.  She has kindly written this foreword. 

FOREWORD

‘What a Performance’ is a terrific read indeed. Young children and their young-at-heart parents will delight in the energetic antics of the young lion Cub and his fellow animal friends as they form their own orchestra to perform a very special performance of ‘Happy Birthday’ for Cub’s mother.

Set in a mythical jungle the young readers are introduced to the instruments of the orchestra in such a witty and educational way relating the characteristics and sounds of the instruments to Cub’s furry and scaly friends. Then to have the interactive rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ at the performance allows both child and parent to join voices in great joy and harmony.

‘What a Performance’ is truly a delight from author Val Neubecker. It is a wonderful addition in introducing the instruments of the orchestra to the young. With this beautiful book the musical door will never be closed.

Prue Ashurst  - M.Mus., B.Mus., B.Mus.Ed., A.Mus.A.  Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International for her lifetime work in music education.

In Trouble

‘I’ve got to think of something.’

Cub was desperate.  He was in the bad books in a big way.  What could he do to get back into, well, into the good books?  He really needed a clever idea.

His mind went back to the day he couldn’t resist sneaking out and climbing Mt Farup.  Okay, his parents had told him not to but it was such a magnificent jungle day – blue sky, clear air.  He knew he’d be able to see forever on such a day.

He climbed to the top of the mountain and gazed in all directions.  What a magnificent sight!