Adorable mouse puppets from the Netherlands, toy-train art installations from Australia, and guitar-rocking acrobats from Quebec: the upcoming Vancouver International Children’s Festival, which runs from Monday to next Sunday (May 25 to 31) on Granville Island, has a small army of category- and expectation-defying artists and performances.

Here are just a handful of highlights; find more at the Children's Festival website.

Potato Needs a Bath (Studio 1398)
Scotland’s Shona Reppe trots out a cast of puppet fruits and veggies in this charmer for the small set (three- to five-year-olds). Known for good reason as the fairy godmother of children’s theatre, the performer tells the story of Potato, who is muddy and needs a bath before he heads to a party. Onion, Peach, and Aubergine are pretty cool too, playing out in colours and comedy that will rivet preschoolers.

Les Parfaits Inconnus (The Granville Island Stage)
Rock music, juggling, acrobatics, and comedy: what’s not to like? This Quebec troupe brings the guitars, balancing acts, bicycle tricks, and big laughs over the course of an hour in a circus act unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Me on the Map (Carousel Studio)
Neworld Theatre presents a kid-cocreated multimedia performance-installation. What does that mean? Children get to help supply ideas in advance for a new Vancouver public space, whether that means waterslides or a hospital or a garden. But just when they agree on something, developers show up with a big surprise and the audience has to work together to redesign the space. Sounds a little like Vancouver lately, huh? Could get interesting! It’s for ages five and up.

I Think I Can (The Anderson Street Space)
Multitaskers at Boca del Lupo, which is also staging Big Bad at the fest, are bringing in this draw for choo-choo-loving kids as a copro between their MICRO Performance Series and the children’s fest. It’s an interactive mini railway installation by Australia’s Terrapin Puppet Theatre. Using puppetry and live video, it asks audience members to become teeny residents along the elaborate toy railway line, and help build a piece of collective storytelling that gets recorded by a newspaper editor and posted online for visitors to check out after the show.