Puppets are coming to the Manhattan Village...

Puppets are coming to the Manhattan Village Shopping Center this afternoon to give children and their harried parents an entertaining respite from mall madness.

Puppeteer Valerie Leonardi and her large cast of elves, assorted animals, an orphan boy and a kindly piano teacher will perform free musical shows at 1 and 3 p.m. in the Center Court of the Manhattan Beach center, which is located at Sepulveda Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue. “Kids are so restless at this time. We want to give them a little diversion and make it easier for Mom and Dad,” said Margo Heltzel, mall marketing director.

Leonardi, a one-woman puppet show who operates all of the hand puppets and creates the various voices, said her shows make moral points as well as entertain. In “The Selfish Elf,” one of Santa’s helpers, who likes to keep children’s presents for himself, learns that the true joy of Christmas is in giving. And in “Miss Julie’s Christmas Surprise,” a piano teacher adopts an orphan boy after realizing that he is the best present of all. Leonardi says: “I’m trying to put something (alongside) the materialism of buying presents.”

But her first aim is to capture children’s imaginations, and she fills the shows with fast action. “It has to be fun. If it’s not, the kids get up and walk away,” she said. At the end of each show, she comes from behind the stage and talks to the children about puppetry “just to make sure the 3-year-olds don’t think the wolf is under their beds or that puppets can move on their own.”