Sunday, February 07, 2010

Pop up books

We were speaking of art appreciation at ST recently and here are a class of books that are art in themselves- pop up books.

Paper constructions are often fragile/ complex and may not withstand our little children's eager handling. But children just need to be requested to exercise caution and/ or insist on adult supervision. In our case, Anushka began to appreciate the marvels a pop up offers at around three years and enjoys unraveling them.

Also, each year the engineering behind these books and the quality of pop ups improve, making them easier to handle.





Author - Richard Scarry
Paper engineering: Keith Finch
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books
Ages- 3-6years


Our small but growing collection began with a gift- Richard Scarry’s Busiest Pop up book ever.


The story is a simple Scarry classic - Bananas Gorilla steals a truckload of bananas, at a port and is chased by Sergeant Murphy and the rest over the railway station, airport and road junction.

As you can imagine, the locations are ideal for a lot of hide and seek, imparting suspense and surprise on/ in every page. The details are amazing as well.


Action packed scenes unfold literally with a mix of clever pull tabs, lift ups and pop ups. Arrows and pointers make it easy for kids to spot the needful.

Despite the average quality of some of the pop ups (stiff in parts even for adults), the book is a fun ride for children under 5 years and a good introduction to the delights a pop up holds.






Design and paper engineering: Ron van der Meer and Graham Brown


Publisher: Robin Corey Books, a division of Random House, Inc.


Ages- 4 upwards


How Many Spectacular Paper Sculptures- a pop-up by Ron van der Meer is truly the union of art and maths- at least counting. Each 3-D paper sculpture is designed to be viewed from all angles and is truly colourful.


On each page, a multitude of a particular shape, in various colours and sizes, is featured. There are lines, circles, squares, triangles and stars among others. All the paper sculptures really are marvellous and awe inspiring but my favourite is the stars one.



Every page comes with questions relating to the shape featured there...eg. How many stars are transparent? ... How many are solid? ......you can improvise and add on your own questions once the child begins enjoying these mind teasers.


A great book - both well executed and engaging !




ABC3D by Marion Bataille


Book Design: Marion Bataille


Publisher: Roaring Brook Press


Ages- 2 upwards


ABC3D by Marion Bataille is an irresistible, lovely, out of the way alphabet book.


The author of this really clever black, white and red alphabet book was in Chennai as part of the Indo French festival. You will need to take your child through the transitions for some are puzzling and not very obvious, at least in our experience with our 4 year old.


To give you a feel of the very quirky & imaginative transitions the alphabets make- E turns into F with a tab extension, O and P turn into Q and R with a "frosted" see through page or my favourite- V into W with an adjoining mirror page.

This book with its eye catching lenticular cover page ( credited to Michael Yuen) , has already won a couple of awards- Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens.


Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland by Robert Sabuda, said to be THE master paper craftsman, are pending on my shelf. More on them later.

15 comments:

Meera Sriram said...

Yes, pop-ups for great for kids (and sometimes even us:) Intrigued by ABC3D. Nice collection. Thank you ArtNavy.

Choxbox said...

Lovely list of pop-ups Art.

ABC3D is fab. And Sabuda is GOD! Alice in WOnderland and Wizard of Oz are favourites here. He does non-fiction as well - the dinosaur one used to be hugely popular with my daughter when she and her friends were four and total dino-maniacs.

sathish said...

I have heard a lot about ABC3D book. Tara books seem to have republished it in India - looking fwd to check it out.

Anusha said...

they all sound awesome, Art!
the local library won't carry any pop up books .... time to check out amazon!

Praba Ram said...

All kinds of paper crafts collage, decoupage, origami, paper mache totally excite me. Love pop-ups for the surprise element - you don't get in others! :)

A very fun review and nice links. Thanks, Art!

We have just one pop-up book in the household, that we got as a gift. It's a fairy pop-up - Cecile Mary Barker's - How to find Flower Fairies. A visual glory! http://www.amazon.com/Find-Flower-Fairies-Cicely-Barker/dp/B002V1GZBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265593173&sr=1-1(sidenote..sheela, yup. Ana would love it! :))

starry eyed said...

These sound awesome! Am real interested in ABC3D!

Choxbox said...

@Starry: Landmark stocks it.

Artnavy said...

pop ups are incredible

I missed another that we have called Yellow sqaure by David Carter in which you look for a yellow sqaure on each page ...hidden in a maze of paper sculptures....pretty nice one

ABC3D will not disappoint anyone- go ahead and get it!!

Poppins said...

The only pop up we have is the ABC3D and it's simply mindblowing. Need to take a look at the others - am intrigued by Alice in Wonderland.

Artnavy said...

poppy- Alice is beautiful and so much to discover even in the quick "flip through" that i did

am waiting for an occasion to read it with anush

Sheela said...

Lovely collection, thanks, artnavy! We have a few at home, some of which are indeed beautifully done.

While not exclusively pop-up, the two that are popular with Ana these days are: The True Story of Goldilocks and The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood -by Agnese Baruzzi and Sandro Natalini... filled with novelties - little envelopes with notes inside, pull tabs, flaps to open, even fabric apron and such, plus a few pop-ups - not to mention the imaginative take on the traditional story...

@Praba: Ditto about paper crafts... and, thanks for the pointer about Flower Fairy book - indeed, you are right, Ana would love it!

starry eyed said...

Forgot to mention that a friend gifted this pop-up book to my daughter for her 8th birthday...it's awesome! It's got a pop-up on each page incl El Dorado, introduction letters, little books, lists, Egyptian tombs, journals etc
'Explorer-A Daring Guide for Young Adventurers' by Sir Henry Hardcastle (Candlewick Press)

Artnavy said...

Praba, Starry, Sheela-

So many pop up reccos . . . cannot wait to see them...

prasang said...

Hi. Nice reviews and thanks. am trying to get Alice in wonderland for my kid . amazon says they wont ship them to india. any idea how else i can get hold of these. any local indian stores that stock such books and ship !? any reference is greatly appreciated.

Choxbox said...

@Prasang: Have seen that one in Landmark. You could ask them to get you a copy too.

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