The Kids on the Block can’t sing...

The Kids on the Block can’t sing and dance like those teen heartthrobs with a similar name. But they’ve won fans all around the world with humor and honesty. Not bad for a band of puppets.

Colorful, lifelike and about the size of a real kid, the Kids on the Block, with the help of professional puppeteers, will be offering their brand of educational entertainment Tuesday afternoon at the Hermosa Civic Theatre.

Presented by the city of Hermosa Beach and Performing Tree, a nonprofit organization that educates children through the arts, the Kids on the Block help children deal with individual differences and a variety of issues, including disabilities, divorce, drug and alcohol abuse, AIDS and gangs.

For example, Mark, one of the puppets, uses a wheelchair, and his friend Mandy is deaf and communicates with sign language. Through skits and dialogue, the puppets encourage children to ask questions about disabilities in a non-threatening setting.

“The kids in the audience talk to the puppets about what it’s like to be in a wheelchair,” said Patti Knoll, the West Coast representative for the Kids on the Block and one of the puppeteers. “They want to know how you answer the door or the phone if you’re deaf.

“We stress that we’re all the same, yet there are differences,” Knoll said. “We try to show how those differences enhance our relationship.”

Created 15 years ago by Barbara Aiello, a nationally recognized educator, the Kids on the Block puppets have performed all over the world and on television. They have received numerous awards, including one from the surgeon general for a program on AIDS.

The performances are mainly for children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Asking difficult questions of puppets is often easier than talking to adults, said Knoll, who will be working behind the scenes with fellow puppeteer Judy McCall.

“We’re dressed in black and we act like shadows,” Knoll explained. “After a while you don’t know we’re there. We move the puppets by putting one hand in their head while the other hand controls a rod in their arm.”

Knoll trains groups to use the puppets as part of a larger curriculum for working with children. “The Kids on the Block represent the world as it should be, or could be,” Knoll said.

The performance begins at 4 p.m. and is free. It’s the first event in the city’s Tuesday Children’s Theater Series.

“We wanted to bring a cultural experience to the youth of the community that they don’t normally get,” said Linda Esslinger, a recreation specialist for the city. The Hermosa Civic Theatre is at 710 Pier Ave. For more information, call Knoll at (310) 326-4732.