I can’t remember its name. I’ll title it “The musician and the horrendously ugly giant” for now.
This was a book about a small town terrorized by a giant. A mother tells her son to not go outside, but he runs outside with his musical instrument (banjo? fiddle?) and somehow drives away the giant. The book’s description of the giant with ugly nails and teeth was chilling. It had an accompanying book on tape. I listened every day, terrified, when I was in first grade circa 1996.
It may be ABIYOYO by Pete Seeger, illustrated by Michael Hays. The son plays the ukelele and his father practices magic tricks and they annoy the villagers. But they save the day by making the giant Abiyoyo disappear.
Sounds a bit like “Abiyoyo”, the Pete Seeger song later made into a book, inspired by an African folk tale. The boy played the ukulele all the time, and lived with his father, a wizard a bit too fond of practical jokes, on the outskirts of town. Abiyoyo is just as big and mean and disgusting as you read, with long fingernails and smelly feet. Everyone else runs away in fright, but the boy makes up a song about his name, “Abiyoyo” and tricks the giant into dancing until he falls down exhausted, whereupon his father makes the giant disappear, and the town rejoices. It’s been featured on Reading Rainbow, and it is a fun song to sing.
Hope this helps.
That’s definitely it! Thank you very much.