Ten picture books that would make great puppet shows

Polly Dunbar is co-founder of the UK-based puppet company Long Nose News. She and Katherine Morton have adapted four picture books into stage shows.

For the Guardian, Dunbar named ten other picture books that would make great puppet shows, including:

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

This is a dark and twinkly book, and transports the reader in a theatrical, almost dreamlike way. The kitchen/cityscape evokes a stage set, the menacing bakers have a "Laurel and Hardy" air about them; I like that they might eat Mickey – the boy hero who finds himself in their cookery – at any moment. The whole audience would chant "Milk in the batter, milk in the batter, we bake cake and nothing's the matter" like a spell. Baking smells would waft out over the audience; everybody would be given a freshly-baked cake as they emerged from the dark theatre out in to the daylight. "And that's why thanks to Mickey we have cake every morning."

Read about the other stories on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue