The Musicians of Brennan Symphony of Stories

The “Town Musicians of Bremen” tells the story of four ageing domestic animals, who after a lifetime of hard work are neglected and mistreated by their former masters. Eventually, they decide to run away and become town musicians in the city of Bremen. Contrary to the story’s title the characters never arrive in Bremen, as they succeed in tricking and scaring off a band of robbers, capturing their spoils, and moving into their house.

Brian Wildsmith (see inside this book here)

Hans Wilhelm

Bernadette Watts

Gerda Muller

Thinking about the 2026 CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) slogan "Symphony of Stories" I had a chance meeting with a parent from a local school and she mentioned the younger children were about to perform The Musicians of Bremen.

There are plenty of picture book versions of this folk tale that you could explore in your library.

The tale was first published in 1819 in the second edition of Grimms’ Fairy Tales and there is a statue in the actual town of Bremen. 

If you want to take a deep dive into the story here is a very academic analysis. I also found a fairly sophisticated audio version.

Lisbeth Zwerger

The four animals put their heads together and came up with a plan. The donkey placed his front hooves on the windowsill. The dog jumped on the donkey's back. The cat climbed on top of the dog. And the rooster flew up and perched on the cat's head.

At a signal, they all began to perform their music at once: the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat yowled, and the rooster crowed. Then they crashed through the window into the room, sending glass flying everywhere! The noise was so tremendous that the robbers leaped from their seats, certain that a ghost had burst in, and they fled into the forest in terror.

This illustration is by Hans Fischer (1944)

This is a 2019 book from Korea

This one is from 2009 - illustrated by Katrin Stangl

Symphony of Stories ABC Classic 100 Greatest of all Time

Here is a fantastic opportunity to link books with classical music - the ABC Classic 100 Greatest of all Time included all of these (and wait until you scroll down and see Number 2 - YES!:

Bluey Season 2 – Episode 26

A Symphony of Stories - Read a Picture Book

Sonam and the Silence

In all of my former libraries I really enjoyed exploring the CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Book Week Slogans. I have listed some previous slogans later in this post. Thinking about Symphony of Stories I thought of a few very special picture books which you could read in your library as a way to explore music in stories. 

These could also be terrific books to share with your teachers - each class could explore one of these titles and then you could hold a sharing time perhaps at a Book Week Assembly. I have put a mix of books here - old, new; Australian; and suitable for Kindy right up to Grade 6. In many of the posts I have included the sheet music or links to videos/sound files so you can hear the music.

Check out these Pinterest collections. Book Week 2026; Songs in Picture Books; Carnival of the Animals; and Music Noise and Movement; 

Herman and Rosie

Dimity Dumpty

Little Puggle's Song

Mr Mornington's Favourite Things

Violin and Cello

The Song for Everyone

The Piano Recital

Pepi sings a new song

The man with the Violin

Little Night Cat

Heart and Soul

The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup

The Fearsome Five

The Moon's Revenge

Previous Book Week Slogans:

2025 Book an Adventure

2024 Reading is Magic

2023 Read, Grow, Inspire

2022 Dreaming with eyes open…

2021 Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds

2020 Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

2019 Reading is My Secret Power

2018 Find Your Treasure

2017 Escape to Everywhere

2016 Australia: Story Country

2015 Books light up our world

2014 Connect to reading

2013 Read across the Universe

2012 Champions Read

2011 One World, Many Stories

2010 Across the Story Bridge

2009 Book Safari

2008 Fuel Your Mind

2007 READiscover

2006 Book Now!

2005 Reading Rocks!

2004 Doorways

2003 Oceans of Stories

2002 Book Week – Book Feast

2001 2001: A Book Odyssey

2000 The Edge of Tomorrow

1999 Weave the Book Web

1998 Put Yourself in the Picture

1997 Bookaleidoscope

1996 Anywhere Anytime Anybook

1995 Celebrate with Stories

1994 Carnival of Books

1993 Go Under Cover

1992 Windows into Worlds

1991 Book into the Future

1990 Imagine if you will….

1989 Dream Time

1988 A Page of History

1987 Sail Away with books

1986 Key into Books

Symphony of Stories - vintage book series

Take a look at this Pinterest of picture books and images to link with the slogan

Perhaps you recognise these books (see below) called Fantasia Pictorial and have them in your school library. They were published in the 1970s and had the MOST amazing illustrations by different Japanese illustrators. 

This series would be SO perfect to read this year and link with the CBCA slogan "Symphony of Stories". I guess most libraries will have 'weeded' these books which makes me sad but you could use this list of stories as a way to extend your discussions about the 2026 slogan OR you could share these famous pieces of music with your school music teacher if you are lucky enough to have one. AND check out this list of 10 of the best pieces of classical music for children from Classic FM (note the video links do contain advertising). I also found this set of lessons from BBC aimed at Primary level students. 

I am guessing this series Fantasia Pictorial was linked with the famous Fantasia movie which included The Nutcracker Suite; The Sorcerer's Apprentice; and Night on Bald Mountain.

Here are some covers from the Fantasia Pictorial series plus other more recent picture book editions of these famous stories:

Here is my Carnival of the Animals Pinterest collection

I couldn't find a picture book for this famous music

I have a detailed post about The Nutcracker penned in 2024

Read more about William Tell here

It might be good to hunt out other ballet stories books such as these: