Pop-Up Books

Martha chats with pop-up book artists Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart about their lovely pop-up books.

Pop-Up Books

Authors Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart have created an incredible collection of pop-up books that would delight anyone, large or small.

The first step in creating their beautiful pop-up books is to build a working prototype, or "dummy," all in white to ensure that the overall design and all of the pop-ups will work smoothly. Then, penciled art is sketched onto the pop-ups so the publisher, Robert, and Matthew can get an idea of how the finished pop-up will look. Later, color art is made using intricate cut-paper collage. Hundreds of pieces of color artwork are pieced together to construct the color prototype. Finally, the art is printed on large sheets of paper and sent to Robert and Matthew to proof. There is no machine capable of putting all of the pieces into a book; it is done in assembly-line fashion in China and Taiwan.

"Star Wars, a Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy"
A three-dimensional encyclopedia of the Star Wars universe, this innovative pop-up book is a way of learning about all the characters, vehicles, and places in the "Star Wars" world. Every "Star Wars" character is somewhere in the book of almost 40 pop-ups, including a very large three-dimensional head of Darth Vader that took almost five years to construct.

"The Chronicles of Narnia"
Based on the series of fantasy novels for children written by C.S. Lewis between 1949 and 1954, this beautiful book presents the adventures of children who are magically transported to a place called Narnia, where they are called upon to help the lion Aslan.

"Winter in White"
This jewel of a book celebrates the wonders of winter, from snow dancing across branches to the scrape of an ice skate across a pond to the whoosh of a sled down a hill.

Resources
Special thanks to Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart for giving copies of "Star Wars, a Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Chronicles of Narnia," as well as their latest book, "Winter in White," to our studio audience.

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Pop-Up Books

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