Issun-Boshi: Little One-Inch Samauri Puppet Show

Our second week of summer reading brought us a true hero's story!

Although we were coming up on a holiday weekend we still had a decent crowd for the puppet show!  One family had seen the show at another library earlier in the day and came to see the show again! (That's saying something!!)

The kids learned a little Japanese lullaby to sing during the first "act"

The kids just laughed and laughed when the mom walks away and the baby starts crying!

Here are some (kind of dark) pictures from the show:

After the show the puppeteer "opened up" the stage so we could see "behind the scenes"!

Rapunzel Puppet Show

Thursday, April 18, was our final puppet show of the school year, presented by Brian Henning of the Urban Prairie Puppet Company.  And the show of the day was..."Rapunzel".

Part of the show was done by marionettes and the other part by shadow puppets.  The kids loved watching the witch climb Rapunzel's hair--especially climbing down because the witch would fall on her bottom!

A special thank you to our generous sponsor of this show!

Mr. McGreegor's Garden Puppet Show

On Friday, March 29 Brian from the Urban Prairie Puppet Company presented

"Mr. McGregor's Garden"

Here are some pictures from the show and the awesome turn out we had!

"Little Red Riding Hood" Puppet Show

We were so pleased to have the Urban Prairie Puppet Company present a puppet show using the Bellevue Public Library's marionette collection.  Children and families enjoyed:  "Little Red Riding Hood"!

As children gathered for the puppet show I brought out hand puppets for them to play with...

And now it's show time!

Wolf (x2), Red, Grandma, Woodcutter

This show hasn't been performed since 1987!!  I loved the adaptations the creators made...the wolf was after Little Red Riding Hood's chocolate chip cookies!  When Red wanted to take all the cookies to Grandma Wolf hurries to Grandma's house so he can get the cookies.  He asks Grandma to get in the closet and when he asks "please" she does.  When Red comments "What big teeth you have!" the Wolf replies, "The better to eat chocolate chip cookies with!"  When the woodcutter comes he offers Wolf graham crackers and fruit--which the wolf ends up liking!

We had an awesome turn out.  We'd like to thank our wonderful donor for hosting this puppet show for the children at the Bellevue Public Library!!

"Puss in Boots" Puppet Show

Several times a year we have Brian Henning, from Urban Prairie Puppet Company come to put on a puppet show in lieu of regular storytimes.  Since last week was the state library convention we thought that would be a good week to have the show.

We had a great turn out for the puppet show...children and parents from all of our storytimes (Baby & Me, Toddler, and Preschool) plus families who aren't able to come to regular storytimes.  The children were very excited for the show and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!

Brian presented the story of "Puss in Boots" using smaller rod/string puppets.  It made for a nice, intimate show!  He announced that he will be performing "Rapunzel" in the spring!