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The Surprise and Wonder of Pop-up Books

Table of Contents
 
Introduction                                                                                                                     Back to top

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Pop-up books have always delighted children, and sometimes surprised adults, but they have not always been treated respectfully by librarians or English scholars. As Carol Brightman wrote in the New York Times in 1984,

A century ago they were called movable toy-books. They had titles such as ''Scenes in the Life of a Masher,'' ''The Jolly Uncle,'' ''Fly-Away Pictures,'' ''The Prince of Lilliput,'' ''Wild Animals,'' and they were immensely popular. There were Cinderellas and Old Mother Hubbards too; as early as 1843, a mechanical Humpty Dumpty was printed in Welsh, Greek, Hebrew, Italian and German, all under a single cover. But more often the toy-books were stages on which different drummers marched than marched across the pages of traditional children's books.

Librarians never cared for them much, if only because they invited handling. Their shelf life was short. Nor were these mechanical books with transformation pictures, pop-ups and rotating wheels covered in the classic histories of children's literature, being more toy than book in the professional mind.[1]

But "toy books" quickly found their way into the hearts of children and adults, and eventually librarians and English scholars realized they were more than a passing fad. Today, pop-up books represent an important, and often celebrated, genre of books. To celebrate an extraordinary addition of more than 600 pop-up books to the Clarke Historical Library, the library is hosting an exhibit entitled, The Surprise and Wonder of Pop-up Books. The exhibit interprets pop-up books, both old and new, and will run into the fall semester. In addition, the staff has created this web version of the exhibit.

There are as many ways to think about pop-ups as there are books to enjoy. Three related, but different, ways are explored here.

  • For many people, it is simply the wonder and delight of the books that captivates them. The pages of a book literally come to life. Magic happens.

  • Like most magic, behind the scenes, skilled individuals are making the unexpected, or seemingly impossible, happen. There is a long history of publishers and artists who, as paper magicians, make possible the moment when a castle lifts off the page or a cyclone whirls into life. Artistry, genius, and the profit motive are all at work.

  • Artistry and genius, as well as profits, are grounded in a history of techniques that are equally knowable, if not equally applied, by anyone who tries to make paper pop up. Every child (and every adult) who has ever peeked inside a pop-up book to see how it works is privy to the fundamental techniques of the craft. And some of the most proficient modern book makers have offered tutorials for those who would like to try their hand at making a pop-up.

The Surprise and Wonder of Pop-up Books offers the visitor magic, but if the visitor wants a bit of  knowledge, the show also quietly pulls back a curtain to share some of the history of pop-up books and the paper magicians that have amazed and delighted us, as well as peek at the techniques underlying the re-imagining of a two-dimensional book as a form of performance.

The Magic                                                                                                                    Back to top

Many books displayed in the exhibit appear simply for their wonder. Art, toy books, models, and storytelling are all areas in which pop-up books simply amaze.

Art

One area of particular interest in contemporary pop-up books is art. Modern pop-ups both draw upon existing art as well as showcase the artistry uniquely enabled by the pop-up book itself; or as noted by Stephen Van Dyk and his co-authors, the mechanisms and forms of the book can come together as "a sculptural work of art."[2] Dramatically illustrating this use of pop-up books is one of the centerpieces of the exhibit, "Blue Memphis Arisin' and 28 black spots" from David A. Carter's 600 Black Spots (2007).

600 Black Spots

Officially, the book is a scavenger hunt, looking for black dots printed on each page. But the book is far more than an exercise in counting. It was described by Joanna Rudge Long in a New York Times book review as a "tour de force of paper engineering," which "arrives just as the front cover opens, when a graceful swirl of slim white strips — a sinuous fan, playing delicately with its own shadows — springs up." Rudge adds, "its pleasures aren't narrative but visual, and enhanced by an appreciation for the abstract. As such, the book does what it sets out to do, and does it with style." Her last sentence of the review points out the book's real audience: "…it's likely to intrigue the grown-ups more than the young."[3]

Another review pointed to the volume's "large-scale, knock-your-socks-off pop-up abstracts" but quickly found an underlying theme, which "takes a quick tour through modern art, celebrating jazz and visual spontaneity, as well as paying specific tribute to Mondrian and the Fauves." As did the review published in the New York Times, this one acknowledges "the general theme is likely to pass over the heads of children (not to mention many grown-ups)." But perhaps the theme isn't necessary to understand, since "all of the movement and color here create a riveting visual experience."[4]

Other notable, art inspired books in the exhibit include:

  • David Carter, Blue 2 (2006) – video

  • James Diaz, Making Colors (2013) – video

  • James and Francesca Diaz, Making Shapes (2012) – video

  • Courtney Watson McCarthy, Hokusai Pop-Ups (2016) which draws upon the art of Katsushika Hokusai, a leading Japanese print maker who created "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" in the 1820s.

  • Philippe UG, Funny Birds (2013), English translation by Cynthia Hall – video

  • Ron van der Meer, How Many: Spectacular Paper Sculptures (2007)

Model & Toy Books                                                 

Model and toy books diverge from the art found in works like 600 Black Spots. Rather than explore, or simply become, art, these books return to the original purpose of pop-up books and focus on recreating the world in amazing detail.

03-DaVinci.jpgOne volume featured in the exhibit is Journal of Inventions: Leonardo Da Vinci (2008), written by Jaspre Bark, pop-up illustrations by David Lawrence, and paper engineered by David Hawcock. The book is filled with working models of some of Da Vinci's greatest inventions. The book's centerpiece is a three-dimensional model made from Da Vinci's sketches for a flying machine. Though Da Vinci never built the machine, his drawings take flight on the pages of the book.

04-Planetarium.JPGEqually fascinating is, This Book is a Planetarium and Other Extraordinary Pop-Up Contraptions (2017), by Kelli Anderson. Maria Popova has described this volume as "occupying the embodied space between poetry and science." It is "a wondrous pop-up masterpiece that translates the laws of physics, from light to time, into magical hands-on demonstrations that make tangible and concretely comprehensible the abstract forces and phenomena we experience daily but cannot ordinarily touch."[5]

In addition to becoming a planetarium, the book transforms into five other objects: a musical instrument complete with strings, a tool to create geometric drawings, an infinite calendar, a message decoder, and a speaker that amplifies sound. As one web reviewer wrote: "This book walks the finest of lines between being a book to read and an event to experience."[6]

Other books in this category bring to life the real world in loving detail:



  • Choo-Choo Charlie: the Littletown Train (1997), written by Dawn Bentley and illustrated by Michael Welply. The book includes a wind-up toy train that travels on its track though a three-dimensional pop-up village. It is a model railroad in a book.

  • The Little Engine That Could as Retold by Watty Piper (1984), first published in 1954, this classic was re-illustrated in this 1984 edition by Richard Walz.

  • Robert Crowther's Amazing Pop-up House of Inventions: Hundreds of Fabulous Facts about Where You Live (2000). One librarian enthused: "I placed this book, … on top of the pile. Within minutes everyone in the joint found it extraordinary. From its tiny hidden details to its fabulous fascinating facts, a novelty book this may be, but it's also going to win over a whole host of different kinds of readers. The only question left in my mind is where the heck we're going to catalog this thing."[7]

Story

05-Jabberwocky1.jpgPop-up books can be art. Pop-up books can recreate the world. But most pop-ups do something simpler and more ancient: they tell a story. As with any storytelling, the books are sometimes serious and at other times silly; sometimes meant to teach important life lessons and sometimes meant as simple entertainment. One of the most enjoyable of the entertaining story books is Jabberwocky: a Pop-up Rhyme from Through the Looking Glass (1991), illustrated and designed by British artist Nick Bantock.

Jabberwocky is a short poem Lewis Carroll included in his 1871 sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass: and What Alice Found There. A nonsense poem, it describes the killing of the Jabberwock.

Bantock wrote of creating his version of the story:

When Lewis Carroll created 'Jabberwocky' he created far more than a nonsense poem. He released into our consciousness a stream of characters from an alternative world. It reminds me of one of those toys you put in water and watch expand. There really isn't that much of a story there, but by the use of gobbledygook and inference, he invites readers to 'fill in' their own infinitely expanding interpretation. … all the time I was working on the mechanics and drawings I found myself developing the characters and plot in my head."[8]
History and Magicians                                                                                                             Back to top

Pop-up books have delighted children and adults for more than a century. Why are pop-up books so popular? Stephen Van Dyk and his co-authors explain in the book, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn: "The interactive elements of movables and pop-ups are much like playing a game. The amusement and delight of discovery and the ability to lift and pull mechanisms are all opportunities for the reader to participate."[9] Although this is certainly true, before people were amused and delighted by pop-ups, the books had a very serious purpose.

The printing revolution in 15th-century Europe created a substantial market for scientific and medical volumes. The subjects had been taught for centuries and instruction relied heavily on three dimensional models and other visual aids. Anatomy may have been the topic most dependent on visual learning. Since at least the 14th century, lectures on the subject had been supplemented by human and animal dissection. A medical student learned about the body by watching one being disassembled.

Medical texts made use of flaps to simulate dissection. Starting at the skin of what looked like a drawing of a nude figure, flaps allowed the student to look at successive layers of muscles, organs, and bones. The book made possible a virtual dissection.

06-Cosmographia.jpeg [10]


























Astronomical knowledge could also be shown by movable features printed in a book. The movement of the sun, the moon, and the visible planets could be portrayed in books through movable components. Turnable wheels, called volvelles at the time, were used to both demonstrate the movement of heavenly bodies and calculate the approximate location in the sky of a particular sphere at a certain time. One of the most successful of these books was Peter Apian's Cosmographia, which was first published in the Netherlands in 1539. The treatise offered instruction in astronomy, geography, cartography, navigation, and instrument making. The book went through at least thirty printings in fourteen languages. An edition printed in Latin and published in Antwerp in 1553 is featured in the exhibit, lent to the Clarke Historical Library by the Michigan State University Libraries Special Collection unit.

Nineteenth-Century Pop-up Books

07-SpeakingPictureBook1.jpgThe serious character of pop-up books eventually gave way to more whimsical ways to enjoy the genre. In the 19th century, pop-up books found a new audience: children. Authors and illustrators combined stories and movement in one volume. The novelty proved irresistible to children, and likely also their parents. It also sold well. Popular subjects were well-known  stories like fairy tales and mythology, as well as stories adapted from the theater.

The exhibit features a few 19th-century examples of pop-up books. These include:

  • The Little Ramblers, published as one of "Dean's Amusing Colored Moveable Books" in approximately 1865. In the 1840s, London's Dean & Sons, early masters of the chromo-lithography color printing process, were the first publisher to print pop-up books on a large scale. The firm claimed to have invented the genre. Their books dominated the pop-up market through the 1880s.

  • Cinderella, published in 1891 and particularly interesting because it is designed to open as if the children, pictured on the two side flaps of each page, are looking at a play being performed in a theater, with the actors in the center of the book. This, at the time, was considered highly innovative.

  • The Robins at Home, published in New York (approximately 1900)

  • The Speaking Picture Book: A New Picture Book with Characteristical Voices
    (approximately 1890) – video

19th-century pop-ups were a novelty, and in the first years of the 20th century, the novelty of the format wore off. As a result, sales declined. Very few new pop-up books were printed for decades.

The 1920s to World War II

Desperation led American publishers back to pop-up books. Blue Ribbon led the charge. Blue Ribbon liberally borrowed techniques developed and used in the 1920s by the British Bookano series, which gave book buyers the first "automatic" pop-up—whole forms or figures that, when the page was opened, lifted up and were visible from all four sides. If Blue Ribbon imitated Bookano, or as some said violated the British firm's copyrighted paper engineering techniques, Blue Ribbon does seem to have originated the term "pop-ups."

08-MinnieMickey.jpgBlue Ribbon also pioneered books featuring contemporary figures. It printed books about freshly drawn Disney characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Although the artwork found in Blue Ribbon's Disney-based pop-up books is often attributed to the Walt Disney Studios, it may not have been drawn there. Supposedly, Ward Kimball, one of the "Nine Old Men" who made up a group of early Disney animators, said that Disney artists in California deeply disliked Blue Ribbon's Mickey and Minnie, ridiculing the images and making jokes about their artistic inadequacies [11] Whoever drew the images, and whatever their quality, sales were good.

 Examples in the exhibit of Blue Ribbon Books include:

  • The Pop-UpMickey Mouse (1933) and The Pop-Up Minnie Mouse (1933) – more information

  • Harold Lentz's 1932 retelling of Pinocchio, a story that first appeared in 1880. Lentz's book preceded the Disney 1940 movie release of the fairy tale. – video

09-JollyJumpUps.JPGBeginning in 1939 and continuing through the 1950s, the McLoughlin Brothers, a small publisher in Springfield, Massachusetts, published the Jolly Jump-Ups series. These pop-ups, all drawn by Geraldine Clyne (although not always attributed to her), told the story of the Jump-Up family—Mom, Dad, and their six, blue-eyed, blond-haired children—who lived a series of happy adventures, that summed up post-World War II American's vision of the good life.

Featured in the exhibit are:

  • The first book of the series, The Jolly Jump-Ups and Their New House (1939)

  • The Jolly Jump-Ups See the Circus (1944), The Jump-Ups visited the Jingling Brothers Circus "the greatest show," a name close enough to the then widely known, Ringling Brothers Circus, the "Greatest Show on Earth."

  • The Jolly Jump-Ups Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (1946)

The New Wave

Beginning in the 1960s, and continuing today, the world of pop-up books expanded dramatically. As Margaret Mignonette writes, these new books were not just for children: "Authors of movable books … remind us of their double audience, … both child and adult."[1] The exhibit features and shares in depth the work created from this exuberant range of ideas and broad audiences. Indeed, a new renaissance in pop-up books was occurring, and one of the most important figures in it was Vojtěch Kubašta.

Czechoslovakian by adoption, Vojtěch Kubašta studied architecture and engineering at the Czech Technical University. His curriculum was largely picked by his father, who saw it leading to a respectable career. But the young Kubašta was far more interested in pop-up books. He was particularly inspired by Geraldine Clyne and her Jolly Jump-Ups series. In the 1950s, his first book, How Columbus Discovered America (1953), featured wonderful recreations of Columbus's three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.

Among Kubašta's most well-loved pop-ups are his Tip and Top series. Tip was impetuous, Top was cautious. Together, they explore the world. Sometimes though, a reader must acknowledge that their exploration is more an excuse to show Kubašta's technical prowess with a piece of paper. Story was increasingly taking second place to art.

Robert Sabuda, who, a generation later, would lead another revolution in pop-up books, summed up Kubašta's accomplishments this way: "What's astounding about Kubašta, as opposed to many pop-up artists today working with multiple layers of paper, is that he achieved his effects using a single piece of paper. That is the real magic of Kubašta. The simplicity of it, from a paper engineer's point of view, is simply amazing."[12]

In the 1990s, Kubašta was succeeded by a new group of artists who once again revised and reinvented the genre with their skills. Among the most important figures of this generation are Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud, Sam Ita, and Matthew Reinhart. The most prominent among them is Robert Sabuda.

Vojtěch Kubašta

10-Kubasta.jpgCzechoslovakian by adoption, Vojtěch Kubašta studied architecture and engineering at the Czech Technical University. His curriculum was largely picked by his father, who saw it leading to a respectable career. But the young Kubašta was far more interested in pop-up books. He was particularly inspired by Geraldine Clyne and her Jolly Jump-Ups series. In the 1950s, his first book, How Columbus Discovered America (1953), featured wonderful recreations of Columbus's three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.

Among Kubašta's most well-loved pop-ups are his Tip and Top series. Tip was impetuous, Top was cautious. Together, they explore the world. Sometimes though, a reader must acknowledge that their exploration is more an excuse to show Kubašta's technical prowess with a piece of paper. The story was increasingly taking second place to art.

Robert Sabuda, who, a generation later, would lead another revolution in pop-up books, summed up Kubašta's accomplishments this way: "What's astounding about Kubašta, as opposed to many pop-up artists today working with multiple layers of paper, is that he achieved his effects using a single piece of paper. That is the real magic of Kubašta. The simplicity of it, from a paper engineer's point of view, is simply amazing."[13]

In the 1990s, Kubašta was succeeded by a new group of artists who once again revised and reinvented the genre with their skills. Among the most important figures of this generation are Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud, Sam Ita, and Matthew Reinhart. The most prominent among them is Robert Sabuda.

Robert Sabuda

Sabuda grew up in Pinckney, Michigan. As a boy, he loved arts and crafts projects. But he found his life's passion when his mother brought home from work some used, manila file folders. The thick paper was perfect for making pop-ups. His mother, who worked as a secretary at the Ford Motor Company, secured a seemingly endless supply of used folders for her son to work with and improve his skill. Eventually, Sabuda moved on from pop-ups constructed from old file folders to attended the Pratt Institute in New York City, one of the nation's leading schools in the areas of art, design, and architecture.

While at Pratt, Sabuda interned at a children's book publisher. The experience changed his life; his dream became to make pop-up books. His goal, though, remained the same as it had been in Pinckney working with old file folders. "At my studio we are always trying to make the paper obey. I AM THE POP-UP MAKER. YOU ARE THE LOWLY PAPER. OBEY!" A command about which Sabuda sheepishly admitted, "But it never does." He added, "The paper is like a new puppy, adorable but incorrigible. Making pop-ups for a book requires a patience that is no longer common today."[14] 

15-SabudaOz.jpgSabuda, however, is a very patient artist, and a master at training paper to do things beautifully. As Steven Heller wrote in his New York Times review of Sabuda's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,

Sabuda has surprises on every spread, even given how well we all know Alice. Each scene builds the narrative (and I will not spoil the experience by describing them here), but the final spread is such an engineering tour de force that I can only sympathize with the expert Chinese printers and assemblers who laboriously constructed each copy by hand.[15]

Examples of Sabuda's work in the exhibit include:

  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2003) – more information

  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (2000)

  • The Chronicles of Narnia (2007) – video

  • The Dragon & the Knight (2014)

  • Peter Pan (2008)

Matthew Reinhart

Six years younger than Robert Sabuda, Matthew Reinhart was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His father served in the Navy and was frequently assigned to new posts, thus the family moved around the country. Despite moving several times throughout childhood, Reinhart's sketchbook was always at hand. He loved reading and learning about nature, science, and ancient history, although he would later confess his school notebooks often had more drawings than class notes.

Reinhart originally decided to become a doctor and began studying pre-med in college. After a year of thinking, he abandoned medicine and was accepted at the Pratt Institute and studied industrial design. After graduating, he apprenticed with Robert Sabuda and found his life's work as a children's book author, illustrator, and paper engineer.

His first successful pop-up book was not focused on a cheerful topic or happy narrative, the focus of so many children's authors. The Pop Up Book Of Phobias (1999) is described by one reviewer as a something that "doesn't quite count as immersion therapy, but it's a start. Each page is an eerie illustration of a different common phobia including dentophobia, claustrophobia, and arachnophobia."[16] Each phobia is explained in exquisite, often chilling detail.

12-ReinhartPhobias.jpgFor example, dentophobia is, "the phobia often manifests itself in the form of paranoid delusions of dentist as torturer, drilling through cuspid and mandible, lacerating gum tissue, and striking repeatedly at the exposed nerve endings, while the patient, secured to the chair, remains conscious throughout the procedure."[17]  The book is more than quirky, but also much beloved.

Many, and fortunately much less upsetting, pop-up books followed. Some of those in the exhibit include:

  • Cinderella (2005)

  • Disney's Frozen: A Pop-up Adventure (2016)

  • Rumble! Roar Dinosaurs! (2012)

  • STAR WARS: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy (2007)

  • Harry Potter: A Pop-up Guide to Hogwarts (2018)

Reinhart has also partnered with the older master of the art, Robert Sabuda on works such as the Encyclopedia Prehistorica and the Encyclopedia Mythologica

Sam Ita

Another student of Robert Sabuda, Sam Ita's fascination with paper began when he attended a paper airplane contest held at the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington. From the stands, thousands of contestants hoping to win prizes, wrote their names on paper airplanes and launched them at various targets. The plane which landed closest to a target's center won the thrower the prize associated with the target. Ita failed to win anything. But he was hooked on working with paper for life. He, too, attended the Pratt Institute.

13-Ita.jpgFeatured in the exhibit is his 2008 creation, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The book re-imagines Jules Verne's 1871 classic tale. You can watch  Ita create one of his volume's centerpiece pages.

Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud

14-Popville.jpgAnouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud graduated from the École supérieure des arts décoratifs in Strasbourg, France. Their first book, Popville (New York: Roaring Press Book, 2010), was widely praised. Each page opens to a moment in a city's construction. The book starts with a single church and ends with a crowded city. In between the two, houses, apartments, factories, and much more pop-up. With a retro appearance and clever paper engineering, Boisrobert and Rigaud allow you to build a city. Other books by the two artists in the exhibit include:

  • Wake Up, Sloth! (2011) – video

  • That's My Hat! (2015)

The Techniques                                                                                                          Back to top

The exhibit also considers the technology and techniques employed to make the magic of pop-up books happen. Disassembled books tell a story that Philips and Montanaro describe:

The paper engineer's task is to be creative and imaginative yet also practical. The illustrations in a pop-up book must stand up when the book is opened, but they must also accurately fold down when the book is closed, tucking all of the paper parts back inside the covers. The design must show how the movable pieces will attach to the page so they won't break, which points need to glue, how long pull tabs should be, and how high a piece can pop up. The final step is to lay out the pieces so they fit on to a sheet that will be run through the printing press.

After printing, the nest sheet is die-cut, then fast nimble fingers fold the pieces of pop-up, inserts paper tabs into slits, connect paper pivots, and glue individual sections in place. The alignment of glued-on pieces with the printed page must be exact.  Angles must be precise. The most complex books can require over 100 individual handwork procedures.  Since the beginning, all moveable books have been made by hand, and today's pop-up books are still individually constructed.[18]

An example of how to make a pop-up book is found in a video created by Matthew Reinhart.

The Exhibit's Inspiration                                                                                     Back to top

Exhibits have a point of inspiration. The Surprise and Wonder of Pop-up Books began a decade ago. English professor Francis Molson had become a major donor to the library. He and his wife Mary Lois had donated over seventy works of original art drawn for children's books to the library, and also founded an endowment to make future art purchases possible. Their art had found a good home and they had agreed between themselves to stop collecting new pieces. But collecting was something they enjoyed.

15-SabudaOz.jpgThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz started them on a new quest. Dr. Molson had always been fascinated by the Oz books, and one day he and his late wife Mary Lois found themselves intrigued by a pop-up book telling the Oz tale,  a volume imagined by Robert Sabuda. They bought the book and began to look at what else could be found in pop-up books. They quickly became serious collectors, and, as they had with their art, began to think about what to eventually do with the books. Dr. Molson asked the library staff if we might someday be interested in adding to the library the collection of pop-up books he and his wife had begun. Who could say no to that idea?

Collectors like the Molsons are focused and thoughtful, but they also have a bit of whimsy. The Molsons collected every pop-up book telling the story of Snow White that could be found. The reason for this originated in the 1937 Disney animated movie of that name. Dr. Molson saw the movie as a boy, and, by his own account, it scared the bejeebers out of him. The movie gave him to a lifelong interest in the tale, that led him to, among many other pop-up books, collect every pop-up he could find about it.

Over a decade or so, the Molsons created a collection of more than 600 pop-up books that examine the content and boundaries of the genre. Great book collections found in libraries often originate in the homes of great book collectors. The Clarke Historical Library is deeply indebted to the Molsons, for their selection of pop-up books, as well as for their past gift of a carefully selected body of original artworks drawn for children's books and for funding for an endowment to continue adding to the art collection.

The exhibit is co-curated by two members of the CMU Department of English Language and Literature, Anne Hiebert Alton and Gretchen Papazian. It was designed by Janet Danek, the Libraries coordinator of Art, Exhibits and Projects. It will run into the Fall 2020 semester.

Disclaimer                                                                                                                    Back to top

To enhance your online experience, we have inserted many links showing pop-up books "in action." Some of these sites are from other libraries or not-for-profit organizations, and we thank them for creating and placing online resources to be shared. Other sites are commercial and include advertisements. Linkage does not constitute an endorsement of product(s) and/or services advertised. Other links are to sites we have found that were created by book collectors and pop-up book enthusiasts. Linkage to these sites does not endorse the ideas shared on these sites, nor constitute verification of any information presented as factual.

Citations                                                                                                                   Back to top

[1] Carol Brightman, "Toy Books in the Age of Packaging," New York Times, November 11, 1984. At  https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/11/books/toybooks-in-the-age-of-packaging.html.

[2] Stephen Van Dyk, Elizabeth Broman, Ellen Rubin, and Ann Montanaro, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn, Exhibit Catalog (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 2010), 17-18.

[3] Joanna Rudge Long, "Full Circle," New York Times, November 11, 2007. At https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/Long-t.html.

[4] "600 Black Spots," Kirkus Reviews, May 20, 2010. At https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-a-carter/600-black-spots/.

[5] Maria Popova, "This Book Is a Planetarium: A Pop-Up Masterpiece Translating the Laws of Physics into Playful and Poetic Tangibility," Brain Pickings, undated. At https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/01/08/this-book-is-a-planetarium-kelli-anderson/.

[6] "This Book is a Planetarium," Let's Talk Picture Books, December 10, 2017. At http://www.letstalkpicturebooks.com/2017/12/this-book-is-planetarium.html.

[7] Elizabeth Bird, "Review of the Day," School Library Journal, March 5, 2009. At http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2009/03/05/review-of-the-day-robert-crowthers-pop-up-house-of-inventions/.

[8]Nick Bantock, The Trickster's Hat: A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity (New York: Perigee Book, 2014), 40.

[9] Stephen Van Dyk, Elizabeth Broman, Ellen Rubin, and Ann Montanaro, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn, Exhibit Catalog (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 2010), 12.

[10]Image courtesy of Michigan State University Library Special Collections.
[11] "Blue Ribbon Books," A Guided Tour of the Mel Birnkrant Collection. At http://melbirnkrant.com/collection/page48.html.

[12] Margaret Higonnet, "Orality onto Paper and into action," in Intersections, Interferences, Interdisciplines: Literature with other Arts, eds. Haun Saussey and Gerald Gillespie (Bern: Peter Lang, 2014), 132.
[13] Once Upon a Pop-Up, Exhibit Catalog, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Rare Books and Special Collections Library, University of British Columbia, 9. At https://library-rbsc-2017.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2018/04/OnceUponaPop-up-Catalogue-Online-Final.pdf.
[14] Robert Sabuda, "Making the Paper Listen and Obey," The Lion and the Unicorn 29:1 (January 2005): 9.
[15] Steven Heller, "Children's Books; Ready for her close-up," New York Times, November 16, 2003. At https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/books/children-s-books-ready-for-her-close-up.html.

[16]  Sonia Weiser, "10 Pop-up Books that are Works of Art," Mental Floss, June 18, 2015. At https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/65074/10-pop-books-are-works-art.

[17] Matthew Reinhart, The Pop-up Book of Phobias (New York: Rob Weisbach Books, 1999).

[18] Trish Phillips and Ann Montanaro, The Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide to Making Pop-Ups and Novelty Cards (Wigston, UK: Hermes H



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