For children facing serious medical conditions, the hospital can be a confusing and scary place. Unfamiliar people, weird machines, and strange sounds can be startling and uncomfortable. Which is why ...

Art teacher Cheryl Capezzuti led out a dozen or so towering, colorfully costumed characters. “It’s puppet time!” she cried.

When teachers noticed that children in Oakland preschool and kindergarten classrooms were not engaging in imaginative play or interacting with each other as much after the pandemic, staff at ...

In a world where cruelty can flourish, maybe we need more puppets. They’re a “Trojan horse for empathy,” says Alex Vernon, half of the Baltimore-based puppet and filmmaking company Alex and Olmsted.

A puppet is a small, controllable figure of a person or animal. The original puppets were cloth bodies that fit over human hands like gloves. The puppeteer controls the figure’s movements from inside.