A CHILDREN’S author from Watchet will be winging her way to America to attend a festival where a symphony orchestra will perform a specially commissioned score based around one of her picture books.

Jill Newton, a prolific illustrator and writer, was approached by the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, on Lake Michigan, to ask if music based on her book Crash Bang Donkey! could be performed by the 67-piece Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, for their annual children’s concert on February 17.

The performance will include not only an original music score, commissioned by the orchestra and created by a local composer, but also a full reading of the book, Crash Bang Donkey!, by the city’s youth services librarian (dressed as a donkey), with the illustrations projected on a screen alongside the stage.

Jill was invited to attend, and she will be going over for a week along with her husband, town councillor Cosmo Johnson. She will do a number of workshops and readings at libraries and schools, and with dementia classes.

“It will be amazing. It all sounds magical,” said Jill.

Read the full feature in tomorrow’s Free Press.