Finger Puppet Theater Book
Finger Puppet Theater provides a framework for children to engage in interactive communication with a book. To creatively deal with what some perceive as the “attack” on books by toys, interactive games and web-activities, our project offers the child a “hands-on” approach. But we retain the important aspects of “old school books”–the story, play, and basic cultural references.
Finger Puppet Theater extends to the child an opportunity for an equal relationship with the book. The child is invited to feel that the book is a friend and not a mentor–that the child is a participant, not a customer.
Production costs for the project are very low, making it a natural to bring to the mass market. For the longer stories (Brothers Grimm stories, H.C. Andersen and S. Perro), we will also be including an audio book component.
The first book of the first series is called “Folk Russian Poteshky”. (“Poteshky” are nursery rhymes told to children and accompanied by hand gestures and/or finger manipulation, similar to English-language traditions like “This little piggy”.)
The box includes:
- five five-page books (seven pages including cover)
- stage
- glue sticks for making puppets
- instructions for making more puppets
The drawings are printed on only one side of the page, so that the child can create puppets by simply pushing the dolls out along perforations and using the enclosed self-adhesive stickers.
After the child reads the stories, he can immediately start in on the main activity: creating a play based on them.
During the show, if the child (or the spectators) can read, they can use the subtitles by placing them in front of the stage. This may increase the child’s interest in reading and make the words themselves into active characters in the play.
here is the book of Nursery Phymes in English
