Customer Reviews

Amazingly Easy Puppet Plays: 42 New Scripts for One-Person Puppetry

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was looking for a book with easy puppet plays that I could do for my own preschoolers and for young audiences of a weekly preschool. I needed something simple to prepare, for one person, and entertaining. I read the 2 existing reviews before deciding to purchase it. The first reviewer didn't think much of the puppet show choices. The second thought it was really helpful. I completely agree with the second, positive review. It was just the book I was looking for. So far I've done a handful of the shows with minimal practice and minimal props. I'm a begginer and this book provides excellent material to get me started. There are several Brer Rabbit type stories, several stories that involve 2 puppets that can be any two from your collection, there are several educational puppet shows on safety, learning about the library , taking care of books, and there are adaptions of traditional tales sucha as the three pigs, Moon Rock Soup (Stone Soup). Theres a real good mix of educational and just for fun stories. I'm real pleased!!!

This book does have a large selection of puppet plays that takes very little in the way of stage props and puppets. It has some good ideas for beginners on making puppets and props. Most of the skits are high on entertainment, but many I found encouraged playing tricks on one another for fun and sarcastic humor. As a puppeteer and a script writer I found most of them disappointing because they have little or no character building or moral lessons to offer. Even the references to reading and utilizing the library were weak.

The title of Dee Anderson's book should be changed from Amazingly Easy to Amazingly Awesome!! I've done childrens' programming for years and this is one of the best resources for puppet plays that I have ever come across. The plays are simple enough for one person yet quite adaptable for two to use even more effectively. The multitude of scripts is tremendous and having used this book extensively with pre-school as well as school aged children, I know that the audience response is also tremendous. All the puppet plays that I have performed from this book have been a resounding success!!! Anyone who does childrens' programming, whether they are seasoned veterans or beginners, from schools to libraries should consider this book a must have resource!!