Hide and seek with pop-up books

Yellow Square, the latest pop-up by David Carter, is not just for kids. (And if you have young kids, you know that pop-ups are a challenge.)

Every page has a yellow square. In the beginning, the square is easy to find, but on the last page, you really have to look. On the back cover, Carter writes, “…my hope is to create a range of feelings and interactive visual experiences. I believe that art that creates a roller coaster of emotions is entertainment, and one of my goals as an artist is to entertain your mind. Please enjoy the ride. And please touch the art.”

Carter, whose earlier books include Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings, a book I hand sold to every grandparent looking for a fun gift back in 1995, has gone “modern.” The colors and the shapes in Yellow Square remind me of Mondrian, Alexander Calder, and Joan Miró, to name a few.

I had fun with it, but I can say in all honesty there were parts I didn’t “get” just like I sometimes don’t “get” some of the moderns listed above. This is definately a “try before you buy” book, and a “know your audience” book.

That said, I can’t wait to troll our stacks and find the earlier books in this strange series, One Red Dot, Blue 2, and 600 Black Spots.

I wonder what Sabuda’s up to this year…ah, Peter Pan is definitely a far cry from his first, the Christmas Alphabet, which came out the first Christmas I worked for Fox Books, 1994. Google is fun, here is a compendium of Sabuda books.

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What are your favorite pop-up books? If you are a librarian, does your library circulate pop-ups? (Ours does not.)