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Friday 30 October 2020

SHE'LL BE COMING ROUND THE MOUNTAIN • New Print-On-Demand UK & US Paperbacks


I'm delighted to announce that Deborah Allwright and I have just published new UK and US print-on-demand paperback editions of She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, our picture book adaptation of the classic US folk song that was originally published in 2006.

There are several versions of the song in existence; the book is adapted from a campfire version that features accumulative sound effects. Each verse introduces a new sound effect which is repeated at the end of subsequent verses resulting in a long string of sound effects at the end of the final verse. To break down the repetition of the original, the picture book version substitutes a rhyming couplet into each verse.

The picture book includes several verses that will be familiar to readers who know the campfire version, such as "She'll be driving six white horses" …

… and several new verses of my own invention, all of which are accompanied by Deborah's wonderful illustrations of boisterous cowgirl Bonnie Bandit.

Although the original UK and US editions have been out of print for about a decade, the book has remained popular with schools and when lockdown began earlier this year I noticed that several teachers and librarians were sharing readings and singings of the book with their stay-at-home students via YouTube and other video-sharing platforms.

Here's a smashing sing-along rendition from a US elementary teacher.

 
These videos prompted me to create my own sing-along YouTube videos of the book for stay-at-home families which were shared online by Booktrust among others. When I got in touch with Deborah to discuss making the videos we decided that now would be a good time to bring the book back in a print-on-demand edition. 

The book is as popular in the US as the UK, so we created a separate edition for US readers. In addition to revisions to spelling and grammar (ie: pyjamas/pajamas or flavour/flavor) there are some changes in vocabulary. So Bonnie juggles with jello rather than jelly and drinks from a trash can rather than a dustbin in the new US edition. For some reason, neither of these changes were made to the original US edition.

To mark the publication of the new editions, I've remixed the videos of the book to match the new cover and page layouts. You can watch both the sing-along version and the extended version of the video (which teaches you the actions that accompany each sound) below.

Sing-along Video




Extended Sing-along Video with Actions




Readers of the new editions can also download a FREE MP4 audio version of the book from the Hatchling Books website.

You can order the new print-on-demand editions using the links below.


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