by Vicky on February 22, 2011
Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia, retold by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert (and illustrated by the inimitably fabulous Julie Paschkis) is a story made for shadow puppetry.
In the beginning, Head is all alone.
Head gets tired of eating only the things he finds as he rolls around on the ground. He dreams of the cherries that he sees hanging on the trees. So when Head meets up with Arms, he knows just what to do.
Mmmm, the cherries are delicious!
“Now this is really perfect,” declares Head.
Then Body comes bouncing along and flops on top of Head and Arms.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” they shout, and Arms push him off.
“How can I?” Body demands. “I don’t have any eyes.”
“Ah, but I do,” says Head.
“And I have seen mangos growing on a tree on the other side of the river. Won’t you join us? Together we could swim across the river and pick the mangos!
Body agrees. He is like a big float, and Arms paddle furiously as Head shouts out directions.
They make it across the river and bounce up the bank to the tree.
But, try as they might, Arms can’t reach the mangos.
Just then, Head notices some legs standing around with feet on their ends.
“Hey, who are you? What are you doing, just standing there?” Head calls to Legs.
“We were just walking along and we ran into this tree,” Legs complain. “We can’t see where we’re going.
Head soon convinces them to join up with the rest, and Legs attach to the hands .
“No!” Arms protest. “Hands need to be free to pick mangos.”
“And I need to be in the middle because I’m the biggest,” says Body.
“And I need to be at the top where I can see!” says Head.
So they all trade places, and eventually they all successfully work together to pick the mangos.
“Now THIS is perfect!” says Head.
And here they all are, dancing their happy Mango Dance. Let’s join them, shall we?
The kids loved the shadow play. Most of them were sitting rapt in front of the puppet theatre (it was reported to me), but a handful were peeking around the back and observing the play from behind the scenes. The play required careful blocking and liberal use of velcro!
Afterwards the kids loved making their own Head (Arms) Body Legs persons. And who could resist dancing to the infectious African rhythms?
by Vicky on February 22, 2011
In last week’s Cool After School class, the kids made their own shadow puppet theatres!
Like a genie, Stuart conjured up some beautiful boxes from our garage, which he then proceeded to cut in half.
He taped the sides so the boxes were free-standing and sturdy.
I cut out the proscenium and provided a triple thickness of tracing paper for the screen.
The kids did all the rest. 
Here are some of the theatres in use!
Nate rushed up to me and exclaimed, “Ms. V! Guess what play I’m going to put on in my theatre—The Lord of the Rings!”
The next thing I knew, he had created seven shadow puppets, including Legolas, an arrow, Gimli, Aragorn, an Orc, a piranha, and a horse!
Other awesome puppets included a hare and some sagebrush, Justin Bieber and a Faery, and Pikachu.
The kids had a blast playing with their new puppets and theatres, and they were all swapping puppets because the range of puppets available gave them lots of ideas.
by Vicky on February 22, 2011
My shadow puppet show of The Shipwrecked Sailor, by Tamara Bower, was a big hit with the Page Presents crowd on February 11.
Afterwards, the kids made their own usekhs.
They had a lot of fun trying to Walk Like An Egyptian (and so did their parents!).
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
I had promised the Cool After School kids that we would make shadow puppets at our next class. But the original shadow puppets I had made were lost along with Page. The puppets were fairly elaborate, with moving parts, and I felt too disheartened to try to recreate them.
But a promise is a promise. The news of the Egyptian protesters and the success of our recent session on hieroglyphs prompted me to look for a story from Egypt.
That’s when I discovered this gorgeous retelling of an ancient Egyptian fantastic voyage (discovered on a papyrus scroll that probably dates from the nineteenth century B.C.E.).
The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs, is beautifully retold and illustrated by Tamara Bower, an archaeological illustrator. I photocopied pages from the book and cut out some of the illustrations to use as shadow puppets. I attached a pocket to the back of the ship and added tiny sailors who would fall out when the ship capsized. (This effect actually worked really well, according to the audience!)
I created three puppets from black posterboard: a large tree, the lordly serpent, and the sailor (who had a joint that allowed him to swim, bow, and beckon).
The sole surviving sailor washes up on an island paradise. He is making a thanksgiving offering when the ground begins to tremble, and he turns to see a gigantic Serpent wearing a royal beard.
The Serpent tells him that he, too, is a survivor, after his seventy-four companions were destroyed by a falling star. He predicts that a ship bearing the sailor’s countrymen will rescue him in four months, and that he will once again be reunited with his family.
The Serpent’s prediction comes true. The sailor climbs a tree to hail the ship.
The Serpent bids him farewell and sends him home with many rich gifts and exotic animals.
The sailor presents these gifts to Pharaoh, who rewards him and appoints him lieutenant.
Finally, after he has discharged his duty, the sailor hurries home to his family.
His wife sees him coming, and they run to embrace.
(I made a new arm for the sailor’s wife, so they could reach out to one another. Their arms meshed perfectly.)
What a joyous reunion!
I was really pleased with how well the illustrations worked as shadow puppets. Some detail showed through the screen, and the rather stiff lateral movement and lack of moving parts seemed to echo the static, formal nature of ancient Egyptian paintings and inscriptions.
The kids were enthralled, and the show even drew in some new kids who were in the library. Afterwards, they all went behind the puppet stage and began playing with the puppets. Then they eagerly designed their own puppets and proceeded to direct them in their own stories.
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
We made lotus boxes in the Origami Cool Zone this month.
For the base of the box, we folded the traditional origami masu box.
For the lid of the box, including the attached lotus, we used these instructions from Good Grace Crafts.
Here are the lovely results!
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
Yes, it’s true, he is missing…and I am devastated. Page may be a sock puppet, but he is real.
Everyone says: “You can make another Page.”
I say: “That’s like saying to grieving parents, ‘You can have another baby.’”
I hope that Page is OK. I hope that he is making some child happy and that he is not in a landfill somewhere.
I hope that someone will see my posters and bring him home to the library…
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
We kicked off the Year of the Rabbit with a shadow puppet performance of the Korean folk tale, The Rabbit and the Dragon King, at the Page Presents class on February 4; and a hand puppet performance of the same story plus a Lion Dance at our Music & Movement story time the next day.
Page the Bookworm introduced the rather elaborate shadow puppets I had made, and the puppet show was a huge success.
My friend Nadia had seen a great dragon craft in the February issue of FamilyFun Magazine, and she had taken photos of the article with her cell phone and emailed them to me. Now the article, including templates, is available online. But it was not available when she sent it to me, so I created my own templates based on the photographs.
My husband Stuart had saved lots of egg cartons, and I spent a lot of time (including the snow day when the library was closed!) painting 25 egg cartons, inside and out. Thanks to the wonderful help of my colleague, Gail, and my fabulous teen volunteer, Gregoria, and to the serendipitous discovery of two bolts of very funky seventies upholstery fabric in a closet I was cleaning out, we had everything we needed for this truly awesome puppet.
This was, hands down, the most elaborate craft we have attempted. But it was so worth it! The kids and their parents stuck with the project, complex and time consuming as it was, because they could see what a fabulous treasure they would have to take home with them.
Mr. Matt had brought ten thousand origami cranes folded by his spiritual community, so we festooned the library with them, and everyone got to take some lucky cranes home with them.
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
On January 28, our Page Presents class featured Ma’ii and Cousin Horned Toad; A Traditional Navajo Story, retold and illustrated by the great Shonto Begay.
Ma’ii, of course, is Coyote, one of the Diné Holy People who is often a central character in stories that show the way to lead a good life. I learned this particular story from my friend, Eric Bitsui, when he was an English instructor and I was a librarian at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona.
Eric’s portrayal of the hardworking, taciturn Horned Toad was unforgettable, and I always feel like I’m channeling him when I tell this story, especially since Hosteen Horned Toad’s harrumphing, gravelly voice always wrecks my throat.
I adhere to the Diné practice of telling stories of Ma’ii only during the winter months. So I look forward to telling this story every winter, since it is one of my favorites. At Diné College, everyone looked forward to the day in early winter when the library began checking out the great animated Navajo language films produced by the San Juan School District Media Center in Blanding, Utah (including Coyote and Beaver, Coyote and Lizard, Coyote and Rabbit, Coyote and Skunk, and Coyote and Horned Toad).
Last year when I told this story, we made Horned Toad paper bag puppets. This year, I designed Ma’ii masks for the children to make. They yipped and yodeled like coyote pups as they showed off their masks.
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
Our Cool After School class on January 26 focused on hieroglypic writing. Inspired by Sean Callery’s Code Quest: Hieroglyphs, I printed out a hieroglyphic alphabet and additional hieroglyphs from the book.
My friend, Nadia, who was there with her two sons, had studied ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and she brought some of her books to show the kids. She also showed them how to write the cursive hieratic script!
The kids created their own cartouches.
And, with the help of the hieroglypic font from the CD included with the Code Quest book, I was able to type out their names on my laptop.
We noted slight differences between the hieroglyphic alphabet on their handout, the hieratic alphabet Nadia had shown them, and the hieroglyphic font on my laptop.
Then they made fantastic canopic jars!
by Vicky on February 15, 2011
On January 21, Page Presents featured Zoom Upstream, by Tim Wynne-Jones and illustrated by Eric Beddows.
I projected images from the book as I read the story (with additional commentary provided by my puppet, Zoom!).
In the final book of the Zoom Trilogy, Zoom finds himself in an Egyptian tomb witnessing mysterious ceremonies conducted among cat mummies and monumental cat statuary.
Accompanied by his magical friend, Maria, he is hot on the trail of his elusive Uncle Roy.
Inspired by Eric Beddows’ marvelous illustrations, and, of course, by our magnificent cat, Vanessa, I designed a cat-headed canopic jar.
The base was a yogurt container spray-painted with a matte sand color and spritzed with a sandy texture. The lid was a cone cut from a file folder with a separate cat face (cut from the same file folder) attached.
I printed some Egyptian designs in color and included some gold wrapping paper for additional embellishment.
The results were spectacular!
