News : Summer Reading Program participants learn history of Marionettes

Richard Elsenpeter, the manipulator, puts on a Marionettes show Monday.

Summer Reading Program participants saw Marionettes up close during a puppet show Monday.

Richard Elsenpeter explains how the stringed Marionette puppets work.

Area children learned of the history of the Elsenpeter Marionettes.

The puppets await the show.

Puppet shows are a fairly common event at public libraries, but the puppet show that took place in Vinton on Monday was a rare look at some of the earliest puppets of history.

Richard Elsenpeter brought a collection of his hand-made Marionettes to Vinton as part of the Summer Reading Program entertainment schedule. Elesenpeter told scores of children and their parents how his great-grandfather began making Marionettes and performing with them around 1840, and how the tradition has continued for four generations of his family.

After presenting a fairy tale through puppets, Elsenpeter briefly explained how the puppets work, with their collections of strings that control the puppets' movements.