KIDS/SNEAK PEEK : INNOCENCE CAUGHT IN `CHILD'S PLAY'.

It looks like an old photo. The overly bright scene of two kids at Disneyland could be a black-and-white picture taken years ago, in soft shadows, before the sharp detail of modern color photographs.

Ah, but look closely at artist Patricia Harris' image. Dig into the areas where white becomes black, where shapes emerge from the shading, where Harris has carefully marked and thatched and smeared life onto paper. The scene, part of her exhibit of youthful enthusiasm opening this weekend at California State University, Northridge, exists not as chemicals on film, but as charcoal on paper.

``People look at my work and say, `Wow, what great photography,' '' she explains. ``But, if you look, there's all kinds of mark-making. It's all charcoal shapes and shadows. You see all these shapes, and, kind of like children, they keep inviting you to explore further.''

Her show, called ``Child's Play,'' runs wild with Los Angeles children caught in moments of gleeful innocence. Harris does begin with photographs, shot at playgrounds and theme parks, but the careful dot-dot-dotting of her pencil brings into focus one moment in a child's life.

``They have an honest way of expressing themselves,'' she says of her subjects. ``Children are just free. They're very open. Adults, we're very controlled.''

Indeed, Harris takes control of every element in the the photos, drawing only a small corner of each, eliminating the color, paring the image to a bare two-tone emotion.

``I like the black and white. I like the velvet look,'' she says. ``When I was a child, we just had black and white, and all my good memories were in black and white.''

The exhibit, free to the public, runs from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday at CSUN's North Gallery, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge. Call [phone] for information.

Tales of the puppets

The stories have been handed down through generations of Indians living everywhere from Canada to Peru. They have told the ways of the wolf, the bear and the eagle. They answered the mysterious workings of nature, animals and man. They are an ancient oral legacy, preserved for millennia.

And who better to continue that tradition than ... a bunch of puppets!

That's right, a troupe of intricate animated critters brings ``Animal Folktales of the Americas'' to Woodland Hills this weekend when the traveling Magical Moonshine Theater stops at the Platt Branch Library. Founder and director Michael Nelson and his band of coyotes and eagles performs at 1 p.m. Saturday. The library is located at 23600 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills. Call [phone].

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Photo: The ancient stories of Indians in the New World are told through puppets and music by the traveling Magical Moonshine Theatre, which comes Saturday to the Platt Branch Library in Woodland Hills.