Chapter 10
Rock On!
“Good evening! Welcome to the Mason Creek Elementary School talent show.”
Principal Park stood at the microphone, beaming. Bella, Maddie, Emily, and Sam waited backstage. They were surrounded by jugglers, gymnasts, singers, dancers, and other talented classmates.
Sam tapped his drumsticks nervously. He could hear the audience clapping and laughing as Lyle and Cory did their infamous pulling-a-frog-out-of-a-hat magic trick onstage.
“We’re next,” said Bella.
Suddenly Maddie gasped. “Where are my whisk and spoon?” she asked frantically.
Everyone searched about, but they were nowhere to be found.
“What am I going to do?” Maddie knew her washboard would work only if she had something to play it with. Meanwhile, the magic act was about to end and they would be going onstage soon! Maddie was close to tears. All that hard work only to have it ruined by a last-minute mix-up.
Bella, who had been digging through her backpack, pulled out two objects and held them out to Maddie. “Try using these instead!”
“Really?” asked Maddie.
Bella shrugged. “What do you have to lose?”
Before Maddie could reply, Lyle and Cory returned triumphantly and the friends heard Principal Park introducing the next act.
“I’m proud to introduce four students who are so creative, they don’t just make music. They make their own musical instruments, too! I present to you: the Craftastic Crew.”
The big moment had arrived. The four friends marched onstage and set up their instruments.
Sam looked at the others, gave a nod, and began to tap out a beat on his drums.
Tap, tap, tap-tap-tap.
Bella joined in, twanging away at her strings. Emily came in next, adding the rhythm of her various shakers to the mix.
Maddie took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing,” she whispered. Then she took the two Brushbots Bella had handed to her and scratched their stiff bristles tentatively across her washboard.
Scritcha-scritcha! Scritcha-scritcha!
The scratchy noise was perfect! Encouraged, she flipped the switches and the Brushbots sprang to life, scrubbing away. She moved them up and down on her washboard, producing a faster scratching sound than before, which sounded great.
Then the audience started clapping along!
It’s like a real jam session, thought Sam, drumming away excitedly.
The audience really likes our sound, thought Bella. She closed her eyes and imagined herself rocking out in a huge stadium.
When they finished playing, there was a brief moment of silence.
Then thunderous applause!
The friends could not stop grinning even after they were backstage.
“We did it!” said Bella, jumping up and down.
• • •
That night, even though it had been a long and exhausting day, Bella couldn’t seem to fall asleep. She picked up her homemade guitar and plucked its strings, remembering how it felt to perform in front of the whole school with her best friends. It was funny how they’d started with nothing, not even an idea. Then they’d lost everything to a leaky roof. But they didn’t give up. They had worked together and—Bella stood on her bed, strummed a chord, and struck a pose—the Craftastic Crew had totally rocked the talent show!
How to Make . . .
A Cereal Box Guitar
What you need:
Cereal box
Spaghetti box
Craft knife
Rubber bands
Glue
Corks
Straw
Paints and paintbrush
Step 1:
Paint the boxes any way you like!
Step 2:
Cut out a circle from one side of the cereal box.
Step 3:
Stretch the rubber bands over the middle of the cereal box.
Step 4:
Attach the spaghetti box to the cereal box with glue. This creates the guitar neck.
Step 5:
Draw or paint “strings” onto the neck.
Step 6:
Cut holes on the sides of the spaghetti box and insert corks for the pretend tuning keys. Use glue to keep these in place.
Step 7:
Below the hole on the cereal box, glue a straw underneath the rubber bands. This creates the bridge, which will help make a sound when you strum! Now rock on!
Here’s a sneak peek at the next Craftily Ever After book!
Maddie was just adding the final touches to her latest design sketch when a familiar, mouthwatering smell reached her. “Mmmmmmm! Dad’s pancakes!”
When she finished eating, she visited her mom in her sewing studio.
“Hi, sweetie,” said Margie Wilson, looking up from her sewing machine. “Do you have time to give me some feedback on my designs? I need someone with a critical eye and a passion for fashion.”
“Sure!” said Maddie. It was fun to have a mom who was a seamstress. Maddie thoughtfully studied several pencil sketches with swatches of fabric taped to them. “Hmmm . . . that dress would look amazing if you added some sequins to the hemline. And maybe using a brighter color, like coral, would make it pop—”
Just then Maddie’s dad burst in, holding out a phone.
“It’s him!” he whispered urgently.
About the Author
Martha Maker is a dedicated crafter who is always working on a project—or several! When she’s not writing books, you can often find her at her favorite community garden with her paint set. She lives in Washington, DC, with her family, which includes two kids, two dogs, and two guinea pigs.
Xindi Yan left behind a small city in China to realize her dream of being a published artist. Having always wanted to illustrate children’s books, she buried herself in countless books and drawings, collecting them even today. Xindi currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and dreams about having a puppy in the near future.
Little Simon
Simon & Schuster
New York
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Martha-Maker
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Xindi-Yan
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
LITTLE SIMON
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First Little Simon hardcover edition March 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Simon
