A few months ago, I received an email from Daniel Errico about a new, soon-to-be-published children’s book he’d written,
“Journey of the Noble Gnarble”. He had heard about
Beat by Beat Press and was interested in having his story adapted into a musical play for children to perform.
Daniel is the founder of
freechildrenstories.com, a site dedicated to making original stories available at no cost to children. He’s written hundreds of stories for the site. “Gnarble”, however, was to be his first traditional publication.
After receiving the email I
read the story for free online.
I immediately fell in love with it.
I loved its big imagination. I loved its “Dr. Seuss”-style rhyming. And most of all, I loved that the main character had that ever-so-necessary ingredient of any musical; a main character with a big dream and a passionate determination to achieve it.
I called Daniel up and we talked at length about the project. We met for lunch one day and it became clear that although we write in different mediums, we share the same goal of creating fresh, original, quality content for children.
He gave me free reign to adapt the story however I saw fit – a luxury for any writer.
The musical is a work-in-progress, but here is some basic information of what to expect:
- It will be shorter, and of smaller-scale than the current offerings from Beat by Beat Press (30-minute length).
- It will be designed to be produced as simply or elaborately as desired – a teacher could do it in the classroom with her kids, or an after-school drama teacher could stage it with sets/costumes.
- It will be mostly all sung-through, which means even a children’s choir could perform it as a concert-piece.
Recently I received an advance-copy of the book, and I’ve got to tell you the new illustrations by Tiffany Turrill are absolutely breath-taking. You can check out a preview of them
here.
I’m thrilled that we’ll be premiering the opening song from the musical at the official book release party on
Saturday, October 1st, 2011 at the
Books of Wonder bookstore in New York City. The party is from 4pm-6pm and is open to the public. If you’re around, please stop by and say hi!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below.
For updates and to make sure you’re first to know about when the “Gnarble” is available for licensing, make sure you’re signed up to our Newsletter on the right.
In the meantime, check out these Gnarble Links below:
Official Noble Gnarble Website
“The Journey of the Noble Gnarble” Book Trailer (YouTube)
“The Journey of the Noble Gnarble” Trailer FOR KIDS (YouTube)
Read the book for FREE online (with old illustrations)
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Beat by Beat Press believes in the power of musical theatre to inspire children. That’s why we create original children’s musicals for schools and community theaters to perform. To learn more, visit us at www.bbbpress.com.
