Recently, I spent a weekend out of town with some friends. We rented a geodesic dome vacation house in the woods. One exciting part of renting someone else's house is exploring some of the things they leave out for their renters–like their book collections. This house was throughly outfitted for children to visit, set up with loads of toys, tree houses, playgrounds, and children's books. Peter Pan: A Pop-up Adaptation by Robert Sabuda was far and away the best book there.
The book only has about six pages. Each page has a pretty huge pop-up, so big that it's surprising when you open each one. The illustrations are colorful and bright. The lines are bold and striking.
Each full page has a little booklet that tells the story, and each booklet is actually a pop-up book in its own. Here, a kite pops out of the smaller book.
The little pop-up books really bring the whole experience to the next level, but they're also a good example of the problem with this book: It's complicated and a little delicate to fold together. Small children would easily tear or crease it. In the copy I bought, this mermaid's hair was bent awkwardly. Fortunately the paper is thick and the folds are good, so you don't have to be too careful with it. It's also reasonably priced around $20 for a new copy.
And the kicker: It concludes with a full-on pirate ship. Get out. This book is such a trip.
Peter Pan Popup Book $20 on Amazon.
