Puppets

The book World Craft Puppets by Meryl Doney (USA: Franklin Watts 1995) is a wonderful resource for multicultural arts and culture. With just a few paragraphs, the historical and cultural background of each puppet is joined with pictures of both the authentic original puppet and the modified version made for teaching a class. The background behind the various puppets is concise but informative, especially in how it illustrates how one culture influences another. For instance, the Italian puppet "Punch" made his way over to Britain via traveling shows, where his appearance and character were adopted by the English. He did change from a marionette to a hand puppet, however. Another example are the versions of "jumping jacks" in Poland and India. The Polish version has a different character on each side, expanding the use of the puppet and the way the story can be told. The Indian version is often painted on bamboo paper and the joints are tied with tiny strings. Still another comparison is between the Indonesian shadow puppets that tell stories of their culture (with shows sometimes lasting the entire night!) and the Greek and Turkish shadow puppets that are used to perform stories that are more comedy-based and use a lot of color. There are many other puppets covered, of which I made a descriptive list for myself. These include Burmese marionettes, Chinese hand puppets, Japanese and Indonesian rod puppets, Indian string puppets, Greek and Indonesian shadow puppets, and more. In Mali and Tunisia, for example, the puppets are carved wood with few movable parts. These puppets teach history, values, and culture-based stories. I recommend this easy-to-read, culture-rich text.

This book is a wonderful introduction for people of all ages who want to learn about world folk art traditions and puppetry and who want to make puppets of their own. While geared toward a younger reader, it is full of concise, engaging writing that explains the cultural and historical backgrounds of various kinds of puppets from around the world. It also gives quick and easy directions for making similar puppets on your own. The book features a wide array of puppet types (including rod, shadow and hand puppets) and covers puppet traditions from Poland to Tunisia, from Japan to India. The visual format is extrememly eye-pleasing with lots of colorful photos of world puppets and illustrations on how to make them. Alongside the photos of the actual world puppetry samples are small images of the home-made versions made made according to the book's instructions. My compliments to the editors of this delightful book!The book would be ideal as a gift to an artistic child; as a guide for parents who want to do creative activities at home with their kids; for the artist who wants to dabble in puppetry; or for the educator who wishes to teach art, world history, and/or cultural diversity. And, it goes without saying, it is an absolute delight for the general reader who adores puppetry!Of all the puppet books I've seen (I am a former manager of a state-wide artist-in-residence program for a professional puppet theater, so I've seen many!) this book ranks at the top of the heap. All I can say is, "Buy it, buy it, buy it!" You won't be sorry you did!