1. Anthropomorphism
2. Art
3. Book design
4. Celebrations
5. Creativity
6. Design
7. Drama
8. Emotions
9. Fantasy
10. Imagination
11. Literary devices
12. Multimodal narratives
13. Music
14. Perspectives (Art)
15. Senses
16. Sound
17. Visual literacy
18. Wonder

‘The Flying Orchestra’ is a whimsical story featuring musicians who play their music thus enriching various moments, celebrations, and events. Floating through the skies, they arrive to deliver their music at airports for travellers returning home, offer a sonata for a sad moment at a birthday party, play when someone learns to ride a bike or enliven events at the seaside or in the country. Together the words and art offer an uplifting experience as the musicians travel night and day through over land, sea, and sky.

Members of the orchestra and their instruments float around tall steeples, perform at train stations and airport runways, and travel on escalators. Music is everywhere! McFadden’s art is perfectly in tune with the music reflected in her expressionistic style featuring soft colours that blend into backgrounds and prompt emotional responses.

McFadden’s artwork encourages viewers to imagine the various sounds and movements created by the orchestra members. Throughout there are different settings, varied art shapes, wide-ranging perspectives, and musicians in silhouette. These reflect the types and sounds of music being played as musicians float through the air amongst tall buildings, play their music on a shopping centre escalator, at a train station and on a beach. The lightly applied brush strokes encourage viewers to imagine the sounds being played. Orchestra members appear tall and thin, wispy, and expressive as they alternately appear in billowing form at different settings and offer music to suit each setting.

This picture book inspires various creative activities. ‘The Flying Orchestra’ encourages comparison with poems about the wind or ‘windy’ stories such ‘The Windy Farm’ by Doug MacLeod and Craig Smith, ‘Hairy Maclary’s Hat Tricks’ by Lynley Dodd, ‘The Wind Blew’ by Pat Hutchins and ‘Pooh Bear and the Blustery Day’ by A A Milne. At the story’s conclusion, McFadden provides a list of suggested music to accompany each double page spread thus extending the story experience in interesting ways.

This is Clare McFadden’s first picture book. She has worked as a set designer for theatre, film, and musical productions. Her illustrations have been exhibited in group and solo shows. The original artwork for ‘The Flying Orchestra’ is available at the State Library of Queensland. The picture book won the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Crichton Award in 2011 for new illustrators and was also shortlisted in the 2011 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Best Language Development Book for Young Children (2005-2013). It was adapted for the stage for the Out of the Box Festival and listed as one of the Australian Booksellers Association’s ‘50 Favourite Kids’ Books’.

1. University of Queensland Teachers Notes for ‘The Flying Orchestra’ by Clare McFadden https://d3f44jafdqsrtg.cloudfront.net/teacher-notes/the-flying-orchestra/TheFlyingOrchestra.pdf
2. Queensland Performing Arts Centre trailer for the 2012 stage production as part of the Out of the Box Festival at the Lyric Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre created for children aged eight years and younger https://www.qpac.com.au/whats-on/digital-stage/the-flying-orchestra
3. The Bottom Shelf 27 Feb 2019 review by Barbara Braxton of ‘The Flying Orchestra’ includes a YouTube featuring the creator reading the story accompanied by musicians performing the story https://thebottomshelf.edublogs.org/2019/02/27/
4. Momo celebrating time to read 1 Mar 2019 review of ‘The Flying Orchestra’ http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-flying-orchestra-by-clare-mcfadden.html
5. Queensland Symphony Orchestra ‘Clare McFadden: writer, artist & educator’ https://qso.com.au/about/artists/clare-mcfadden
6. Artsplorers 11 Apr 2019 review by Cristin of ‘The Flying Orchestra’ including an extension art activity related to the music recommended in the book for exploring each double page spread https://www.artsplorers.com/the-flying-orchestra-clare-mcfadden-review/
7. Books for Little Hands 26 Aug 2011 Interview by Renee Cross with children’s author/illustrator Clare McFadden http://booksforlittlehands.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-with-childrens_26.html