Two members of our Inklings Picture Book critique group recently made a pilgrimage to see the original pop-up art of Robert Sabuda and David Diaz in an exhibit “The Wizards of Pop-up.” It was at the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas.
Austin author-illustrators Christy Stallop and Erik Kuntz basically spent the day with Sabuda, Caldecott Medalist Diaz and museum executive director Debbie Lillick. They had dinner with Diaz .
Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhar,t are considered to be the premier contemporary pop-up book artists in the U.S.
Maurice Sendak tried his hand at 3-D moveable art with great results. Mommy? released in 2006 by Michael di Capua Books/Scholastic was a collaboration between him, author-playwright Arthur Yorinks and pop-up wizard Reinhart.
Erik and Christy’s field trip got me thinking how much I enjoyed pop-ups and any kind of “3-D” art as a kid.
Maybe because it broke the picture plane and added one more dimension of “make believe.”
I once owned a reprint of a Turn of the Century pop-up book about a Victorian family’s visit to a zoo. don’t remember the title or the artist
As you turned each page, you saw the same family and a different cage of animals come to life before you. The animals did stay behind the bars, thank heavens.
The book gave you a charming experience of visiting a zoo.
There was this one issue of “Jack and Jill” magazine ( I was a proud 10 year old subscriber) that had a sort of 3-D assemble-it-yourself Dinosaur Diorama.
It featured Pteranadons, Brontosauruses and maybe a T-Rex.
You placed them into a primeval forest stage-set with a curved backdrop that gave depth to a world of volcanoes, ferns, and Jurassic beasts.
Of course the best dinosaur is a 3-D dinosaur.
After doing my part in the assembly I felt as if I’d done the whole mural myself. It wasn’t like I’d painted the dinosaurs. I just punched them out of cardstock and inserted them into their places in the scene. But I had helped to contribute to the 3-D effect!
Pop up books have been around since the Middle Ages — for kids books, since the 1800s. Here, according to Amazon.com is Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart’s List of “Top 10 Pop-Up Books”
Speaking of 3-D papercraft, Kids Can Press has re-released the eminently kid-friendly The New Jumbo Book of Easy Crafts by Judy Ann Sadler. A redesign and smartly graphic illustrations by Caroline Price keep176 pages of step by step procedurals from feeling burdensome.
Mark G. Mitchell hosts the How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator blog.
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Mark speaks with
Oh I love you all I love you all I love you all. My love grows daily, too. This interview is FABULOUS! SO FABULOUS! THANK YOU! Yes, I’m SCREAMING! It’s wonderful on so many levels. THANK YOU.
I’m so totally posting about it once our interview with Anne has its time in the spotlight.
Jules:
Wow! Thanks so much for your kind words. We really appreciate getting feedback on our shows.
Sincerely,
Mark
[…] And, while we normally tend to focus on book reviews and Poetry Fridays (and, well, now interviews, too, I suppose) here at 7-Imp, let me steer you in the direction of JOMB’s post from yesterday in which they talk to Arthur Yorinks. Yes, the Arthur Yorinks, who for “thirty-five years has written and directed for opera, theater, dance, and film and is the author of over two dozen acclaimed and award-winning books for children, including the Caldecott Medal winner, Hey, Al“* — and, most recently, co-creator of Mommy? (and Andrea is always so dang humble about these kickin’ interviews they manage to snag all on their own — in her words, it’s “just me and Mark, our coffee and our love of children’s books”). […]