Making Puppets Come Alive: How to Learn and Teach Hand Puppetry (Dover Craft Books)

This is a must-have for beginning puppeteers, teachers, and colleges. The authors cover every aspect of using puppets including stage, lighting, storage of puppets and props etc. They emphasize practicing before others and giving and receiving constructive criticism. The book includes little skits and lessons which are great for individuals or student practice.I love the retro puppets and minimalism in this original book published in the 1970's. The purpose of the book is NOT puppet construction, but instead, about making them COME ALIVE through subtle hand movements and voice. This book specifically teaches manipulation of simple hand puppets, but it does cover mouth (or sock) puppets. The authors' preference is hand puppets which are effective in using with props. Though the book is not about puppet construction, I'm inspired by the cute, simple, "old fashioned" hand puppets used for demonstration.I especially like that the book emphasizes puppetry minimalism - the simplicity of puppet design, black curtain stage without the use of elaborate scene changes, etc. The authors emphasize primarily movement, use of props, and voice to convey the drama of the puppet show.The book is filled with large photos showing how to move puppets. The authors made a good choice by using black and white photography, because it is the most effective way to convey movement through still photos - better than color, which would have been less effective and also distracting.I highly recommend this book.

This book is from the early 1970's. The Amazon listing indicates is from that 1990's. Nope, it's not. The photos are very clear but they are black and white. This book is almost entirely about manipulating simple hand puppets WITHOUT moving mouths. If you want to lean how to use a Muppet-type puppet, this book doesn't really go into much depth.Years ago, I performed puppet shows with a team that had studied under a guy who worked for Jim Henson's Muppets/Sesame Street. I'm not claiming to be at that skill level but I did learn a few things. This book has one SMALL section dealing with puppets that have moving mouths and the advice here is rather novice in my opinion. This book states that the mouth should be opened by separating the fingers and thumb equal distances while simultaneously bending the wrist to cause the puppet's head to jut forward. That technique is good if you want to make the puppet appear to be yelling, but it doesn't look right for normal dialogue. When you (human) yell, you open your mouth wide and push your face forward so it looks right when a yelling puppet does the same. However, when you speak, the top half of your head does not raise and you don't always push your face forward, but rather, your bottom jaw drops. Likewise, when your puppet speaks, you should move the thumb up and down to move the lower jaw while trying to keep the top of the head as stable as possible. This allows for the audience to see the puppet's full face during speech and looks more natural. Of course there should be some head movement (as is natural even when humans speak) but the top of the head shouldn't flop up and down if the puppet isn't telling. You also want to keep your wrist bent enough to allow the audience to see the puppet's whole face (especially the eyes) while it is speaking. So, I have to say that if you're looking for a book on manipulating puppets with moving mouths, I don't think this one is a great choice for learning about mouth manipulation.

Clearly, and step by step this wonderful book show you how to make puppets come alive in your hands.Parents, teachers as well as anyone with an interest in theater will learn a lot from this book, and quickly. You will be able to teach children how to express action, emotion and humor quickly. For children of 4th grade and up, you can just give them the book, and a few sock puppets, and they'll be off!

Good book for the puppet master wanta-be like me!

Lots of info..still reading and studying. Working on a lot of puppet characters and ideas. Nothing more to say right now. Thank You

This is a very interesting book! I have started a puppet ministry at church and this book is very helpful teaching my puppeteers how to make the puppets move realistically. Thanks alot!

This book was a welcome surprise to me just starting in learning about puppets.Gave directions to actually make the puppets perform with emotion to developthe story line, just as human actors do onstage. Helps to know this going in.

My mistake...I was looking for puppet patterns. I did get some good ideas from the limited pattern in the back of the book.

Mainly focused on the technique and most importantly the MANIPULATION. So, precisely described and well explained with references and illustration by Larry Engler and Carol Fijan. Which encourages to go into wild possibilities of Hand Puppets. One must have this if he/she really interested to explore the world of puppetry.

Excellent!