Billy Joins the Circus

Billy Joins the Circus was inspired by my Storytime with the children at nursery! I wanted to create a story with a catchy song where children could move, dance and sing along. The audiobook is about a monkey who wants to join a circus and has to prove his talent before he is allowed to join.

In the song, Billy sings about the things he can do in an attempt to impress the Ringmaster. This song has an incredible way of making you smile and want to join in singing! All of the actors performed Billy's song which was great fun to record!

The lead character was performed by Sadie Kay. Not only did she do a great job with Billy's voice but she sang the song with perfect theatrical energy which really brought it to life. Find out more about the story here Book Details.

Although I take my role as storyteller seriously, I do have an enormous amount of fun making my audiobooks! Creating the characters' voices is always a fun process and adding sound effects to voices can be very funny indeed! Sometimes, this part of the creation process can take longer than one would imagine!

I invent many of my own sound effects from scratch and I always make sure I use original sounds. I use panning and other volume tricks to create as much movement and depth in the stories as possible. Sometimes I get so carried away with all the fun I'm having, I end up singing and dancing along to the story! It's lucky there isn't a hidden camera in the studio because I'm sure people would think I am a little crazy!

This audiobook has been very popular in my Storytime. I brought coloured wristbands (that look like scrunches) for the children to put on, to help them feel as though they are in the circus when I do the drama section of my Storytime. I also printed out templates to help me teach the children about The Big Top. They love this! The templates give them a chance to practice their colouring in as well as their drawing skills.

When I use this music audiobook in my Storytime, it gets pretty energetic as the song is repeated three times! Stamping your feet, clapping your hands, spinning around, jumping up and down, touching your toes, and waving your hands up in the air (like you just don't care), gets pretty tiring the third time around! I would advise that you don't do this at bedtime! It is, however, excellent fun to listen to with your little ones in the morning, and afternoon and perfect for birthday parties!