Monday, December 03, 2007

Make Your Holidays Pop

I am a newbie when it comes to pop-up books. Elaborate pop-up books that is. Robert Sabuda is one of my "favorite" finds of 2007.

The Chronicles of Narnia
Based on the Books by C.S. Lewis
Pop-ups by Robert Sabuda

What Narnia fan wouldn't love, love, love this delightful tribute to one of the best fantasy series of all time? The artwork, the illustrations, the pop-ups are all extraordinary. There is just something oh-so-magical about this one. Don't be fooled though into thinking there is any text involved. There might be a quote from each book, maybe. But the heart and soul of this book is bringing those scenes to life. Making them 3-D. This book is near perfect. It would have been ever better, for me, if it had presented the 7 books in their true order. They're arranged in this newfangled order--Magician's Nephew, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, The Last Battle. I especially love the illustration representing the Last Battle. It is just an incredible one of the heroes emerging through the barn door into the great unknown where they're called to go "further up and further in."

Another Sabuda book for 2007 is Mega-Beasts. (This is the third in the Encyclopedia Prehistorica series.) You can read my review of that one here.

Other books that received the Sabuda treatment:

Winter in White: A Mini Pop-up Treat
The Night Before Christmas Pop-up
The Twelve Days of Christmas Anniversary Edition: A Pop-up Celebration
Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-up
Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters
The Movable Mother Goose
Alice's adventures in Wonderland
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up
Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey
America the Beautiful

And not everything that goes pop is Sabuda. Here's one sure to be popular this Christmas:

Star wars: A Pop-up Guide to the Galaxy by Matthew Reinhart

2 comments:

Killlashandra said...

Wow those are some amazing pop up books. I think they're pretty cool too. The trick is trying to get my 2 year old not to pull the pop ups out of the book. ;) Obviously he likes them too.

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen the pop-up Narnia yet (it looks amazing; thanks forthe photographs), but I love Sabuda's white series of pop-up books. Re: the newfangled order, I'm with you: I like them in the order I first read them, but there is some evidence for Lewis approving the chronological order it sounds like Sabuda used in his edition. And my husband is going to love that Star Wars pop-up. N.b., I posted about Sabuda today, too!
--Anamaria