Okay LJ I've just added those 2 books to my Amazon wish list!

My Amazon Wish list is getting as big as the national debt. LOL

I hear ya Billy! Mine too! I'll buy one thing and add three. Not going the right way there...

Yeah music is a whole other issue. Thankfully there are LOTS of royalty free music companies and that is all I use.
There are a lot of old folk tales that are considered public domain that can be re-written in your own style and then made into a play and those have no issues either.

This is true, and our local music rights organisation tends to be less forgiving than any organisation representing playwrights/scriptwriters. But that doesn't mean either copyright should be abused and I think most people don't realise that there are variations on the law.

For instance, with music here, we have to pay royalties not only according to how much of the song you use, but also the size of the audience, the location of the venue, etc. Whereas royalties for performing a script would be entirely different.

To say nothing of how it might differ from state to state and country to country.

But that doesn't mean either copyright should be abused and I think most people don't realise that there are variations on the law.

Very true and once you realize the laws it has made me stick with the things that I now are safe like royalty free music and folk tales!

I have often just mentioned other books in my show without performing them, or had the copies of the books on display. That falls under the educational part of the fair use clause and the librarians like it too because it increases circulation. And when performing for libraries it is important to increase circulation for them!

Just to be clear, I think that in the realm of working in a library or even a book store that even if you are charging for your services you could still read a book to the crowd yourself or with your puppet. Remember that the librarian or the store employee is also being paid and do this on a regular basis.   Copyright comes into play when you are adapting or modifying a story from a book into a script for use in a production.

I just wanted to throw this out there.  The rules are stupid.  Make the people happy.