“Lucky Lazlo” and Caravan Shoppe Puppet Theater

“Lucky Lazlo” by Steve Light

This is the sweet story about childhood love and a little boy who wants to give a rose to his sweetheart who is performing in the local production of Alice in Wonderland.  However, a cat snatches his rose and a chase ensues through the theater.  The illustrations are modern with a lot of texture and consist mainly of black and white illustrations with different elements that are brightly colored for emphasis.  Readers will delight in the backstage tour of the theater that they receive through Lazlos pursuit and the end of the book has an authors note that explains a lot of fun theater superstitions that can be found in the illustrations throughout the book.

Click here to purchase “Lucky Lazlo” *affiliate link

Castle Puppet Show from Caravan Shoppe

This book had such a fun theme of theater that I thought a really fun “beyond the book” activity to go along with the book would be for children to create their  own shows, and what better way than with a puppet theater?  This one from Caravan Shoppe also doubles as “beyond the book” craft because kids get the joy out of creating it themselves!

Caravan Shoppe sells this theater in the form of a digital document that includes the file for the castle theater, the puppets and instructions for assembly.  I love this for several reasons: its cost effective, you can create your theater again and again, and no shipping costs!  Once you purchase your file you take it to a copy shop and print it off in a large engeneer print and adhere it to a basic trifold poster that can be picked up most anywhere.  So simple.

I love how the puppets can be printed off colored in or how you can let your child color them in themselves. (The ones I photographed are the pre-colored version.)  There is so much to love about this theater.  My favorite things about it are the design, that its customizable, it folds for super easy storage, and the hours of imaginative play that it can inspire.

My little guy thought that this theater was just about the best thing ever and I had so much fun watching his short little shows.  It is definitely a huge success for us and I am excited to check out more of Caravan Shoppes products.

Click here to purchase Castle Puppet Show from Caravan Shoppe

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.