MOWA
VOLUME 5 NUMBER 4 DECEMBER
STAIIHN Choosing the Best Pop-up Books
Ann Montanaro East Brunswick, New Jersey
In Albert Tillman's book Pop-up! pop-up! he listed his choices of "The 100 best pop-up books." As I reviewed his list, I found that I agreed' with many of the titles, disagreed with some, and missed a number of my favorites which were not included. Tillman described how he choose titles for his list:
"It wasn't easy at all. Books stood out for varied reasons. Some books were pure others were entertainment, strictly educational and a few were both. Some tell and classic stories like Sleeping Beauty others create original new stories. There were some that documented single historical events and others that celebrated famous people or fictional characters. Some were outstanding examples of quality printing, triumphs of colors, well written condensed some narration, and artful illustration were one of these and some were none of
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these.
Variables made setting a selection criteria difficult. But any pop-up book to be considered had to have first impression visual impact the pop-up mechanics, the engineering of objects/figures moving off the flat page and erecting into a piece of intriguing paper sculpture was my starting point. There was a temptation to list separately books from different eras because. the technology available was different and to treat entertainment volumes different from educational. Can you evaluate an alphabet book against. explaining the workings of a camera? Can you match up a familiar fairy tale with the story of Christopher -
Columbus? We found too much criteria muddied the water... got in the way of choosing with a passion. We decided not to take the cowards way of only making a bunch of lists based on variables.
1997
I wondered what titles other people would put on their "best list" and what factors they would use to select those titles. To find out I sent an e-mail message to members of The Movable Book Society who had registered with an e-mail account. Those 60 people were sent a copy of the top 50 titles from the Tillman list and asked to identify their choices of the best pop-up books. Since some people may not be familiar with older titles, the list was limited to books published from 1960 to the present. Twenty-three people responded. (The results of this small sample follow.)
What standards are used to select titles? Should there selections for different categories, e.g. best incorporation of illustration into the pop-up; best mechanical device; creative use of a variety of devices; integration of story, mechanicals, and illustration?
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In The best of 3-D books Tadashi Yokoyama wrote:
When I begin to wonder which of the 3-D books is truly creative, there gradually but automatically appears a solution to the quiz. People are surprised at exaggerated movements and stand-ups of most complex structure jumping at them as they open pages. Does the charm of 3-D books really lie there? I do not think so. Plastic models beat all the others when it comes to faithful reproduction of the original. Following the movements of an object can be best done by a video camera. To build a unique world not attainable in other genres by using the restrictions placed by the use of paper and the form of a book and the simplification and: abstraction that are necessitated by these restrictions . . . these must be the real pleasure of looking at 3-D books. Respondents also made useful suggestions for judging the best books. "The overall concept of the book must be
enhanced by the pop-up." "The movable feature of the book is not there to overwhelm the content but is.a tool." "A really good pop-up has mostly to do with creativity and paper engineering." "Ownership influences what appears on a list." Continued on page 8