Puppet Mania: The World's Most Incredible Puppet Making Book Ever

Rating:
Summary: Ready, set, create...
Review: I teach puppet making and puppetry to children and have MANY how-to puppet books in my collection. I was immediately attracted to the cover of this book because the puppets on the front were obviously not the usual sock puppets or glove puppets found in many books.

In this book, John Kennedy, who has been working with puppets since he was eight and who has made puppets for use in television and the Muppet Review in Disney World, presents some fun ideas for those intermediate puppet makers who have already had success making simple puppets and want to move on to more technical puppets.

In addition to step-by-step photos, patterns and instructions to make the dozen or so puppets, there are hints on how to manipulate them, create different expressions and change the basic puppet to make a variety of different characters.

The feature I enjoyed most was John's comments throughout describing how he first came to create each type of puppet, many of which he designed when he was a child or young teen.

In several instances he mentioned that the puppet shown had originally started out as something else and had grown into its present form gradually. I feel that it is important that children realize that even "professional" artists and craftsmen go through a developmental process before achieving a finished product.

A fun book, but definitely not for beginning puppet makers or very young children, as the puppets are quite sophisticated and there is extensive use of the hot glue gun.