“Long ago in the town of Bethlehem, a child was born on a bright and starry night.” In this review we will take a closer look at Robert Sabuda’s latest Christmas pop-up title: The Christmas Story. A beautiful pop-up book about the birth of Jesus Christ shown in a decor of white pop-ups combined with gold and pearlescent details. Sabuda’s last Christmas pop-up title Winter’s Tale, was published in 2005 and this new Christmas pop-up title is something that we as collectors all looked forward to. The Christmas Story is an even bigger pop-up book and has the same style and white paper-cut pop-up designs like we’ve seen before in Robert Sabuda’s other Christmas pop-up books.

A great match for a classic

The Christmas Story is a pop-up book that already feels like a classic pop-up title. Sabuda’s “plain white style” combined with a classic story like The First Christmas is a great match. The details of the characters and cut-outs are beautiful and subtle. For those who are a fan Sabuda’s angel pop-up designs, this book features even more detailed and beautiful angels! The size of the book which is a bit bigger than Winter in White and The 12 Days of Christmas and contains 6 main large pop-up spreads. Every spread is decorated with gold and pearlescent foil that contributes to the luxury look and feel of this book.

Paper Engineering

Robert Sabuda’s very first pop-up book, the classic and collectable Christmas Alphabet, was the start of a popular series of Christmas pop-up books that all have in common that there’s no artwork used but only plain (mostly white) paper. This pure way of paper engineering uses no “graphic tricks” and is based on shapes, contours and pop-up structure. A very effective and honest way to display the art and complexity of paper engineering without using graphics or artwork.

Every page in this book uses it’s own technique and is amazing in a different way. For example the star that rises up above the three wise men. It’s a rotating star that uses the same technique as we have already seen in the shape of a tornado in Sabuda’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Or the way the stable folds out and sets every character in place, including the characters inside the stable. Most pop-ups are big, detailed and solid and contain lots of layers to build the scene and characters. All those layers fold in-and-out with ease and feel like a strong structure. There also are a lot of pulling mechanics hidden underneath the pages that pull elements into place.

We are very excited about this new Christmas title by Robert Sabuda! We did our best to capture the beauty of this pop-up book but like most pop-up books, the best way to experience it is by holding the book yourself!

Order at Amazon: The Christmas Story

Author and paper engineering: Robert Sabuda
Additional design: Simon Arizpe and Shelby Arnold
Published by Candlewick Press

More Christmas pop-up books by Robert Sabuda

Het bericht The Christmas Story Pop-Up Book verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up by Robert Sabuda is one of our favorite pop-up books. This wonderful and amazing edition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the original Wizard of Oz publication by L. Frank Baum. A pop-up book that contains the short version of Baum’s original story and beautiful artwork in the style of W.W. Denslow. It’s a family book for all ages and feels like magic every time when you open up a spread. The combination of classic artwork and the contrast with holographic foil on every spread and mini pop-up gives an extra dimension to this already impressive piece of pop-up art.

Amazon link: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up

This already classic pop-up book title by Sabuda contains all kinds of innovative techniques to make paper pop-out. One of the highlights in this book is the scene where the Wizard of Oz floats in a balloon above Dorothy and her friends. It’s an impressive mix of design and paper engineering. This book takes you into a world full of depth, surprises and green adventure. Visit the palace of the Wizard of Oz, build a hot air balloon, make flowers grow and watch out for the flying monkeys. It’s all in this book that will blow your mind. A must have for everyone who loves advanced pop-up books!

Author: L. Frank Baum
Paper engineering: Robert Sabuda

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up by Robert Sabuda is number 4 on our top 10 favorite pop-up books list of all times. We rank this book with a 8.2 “Must have!”. Check out our complete Top 10 Pop-Up Books list!

Don’t forget to Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube channel. More pop-up book videos coming soon! If you have any requests for pop-up books, let us know by leaving a comment.

Het bericht Preview: Wizard of Oz Pop-Up Book (short version) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

After many requests from our followers and YouTube subscribers, we decided it was time to do a review about the wonderful Alice in Wonderland pop-up book. The Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Pop-Up Book, created by paper engineer Robert Sabuda, is definitely one of our favorite pop-up books in our collection. It’s the number 1 pop-up book on our top 10 list!

This book tells us the story of Alice, originally written by Lewiss Carroll, through over 6 impressive and very well engineered pop-up spreads. Each spread contains a mini booklet in which the story is told together with multiple mini pop-ups. Sabuda’s maintained John Tenniel’s classic style of drawing for this pop-up book, but with the addition of his own personal details, the book gets a nice and fresh look at it. Each pop-up is designed en created with care and attention to detail what makes it highly enjoyable to read.

The large pop-up spreads show us some well-known scenes that everyone will instantly recognize from the story. We see Alice grow and shrink, we see her falling down the rabbit hole,  she meets the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat,  plays croquet with the queen, and we experience her nightmare in which all playing cards turn against her. Thereby the book is filled with surprising mini pop-ups that make the story even more complete.

If you are looking for a very special and original gift for someone or if you just want to buy this book for yourself visit the following Amazon link: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Story telling in paper

The engineering of this book fits so well with the story, we gave it a 9 for storytelling. For example, it’s amazing how the “victorian peepshow” technique creates a real Rabbit Hole. The next spread shows a complete house with details like a chimney and dormers. This is by far one of the most beautiful 3D pop-up houses we’ve seen so far. Not to mention that this house also contains a giant Alice, with her arms and legs growing out of the windows and doors. If you look closer, you’ll see her face through the front window, another great detail. Every pop-up fits the story perfectly and shows how much paper engineering can contribute to an already great story.

The grand final is the last spread where you’ll find Alice surrounded by a fountain of playing cards. It’s not only the amazing technique, used to make this spread work, that blows your mind. It’s also the way it pops in-and-out. This is guaranteed the only impressive “card trick” in the world that everybody can perform. It’s a unique 360 experience. Like every spread in this book, you can view this creation from all angles, making it a perfect spread to display in your collection.

All pop-ups in this book are solidly engineered and pop in-and-out with ease. Some rotate, some use transparent sheets, some just snap in place and all spread pop-ups are spectacular to see unfold.

This breathtaking pop-up book is exciting and entertaining for all ages and an absolute must-have for everyone who loves pop-up books. We definitely recommend it!

Author: Lewis Carroll
Paper Engineering and illustrations by Robert Sabuda
Published by Little Simon: Pop edition

Het bericht Alice in Wonderland Pop-Up Book by Robert Sabuda verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Robert Sabuda needs no introduction to pop-up book collectors. When you take a look at the photo above with Sabuda posing between playing cards, you might think he’s a magician. Well, he sort of is. He’s a “paper magician” and lets you bring paper to life with your own hands. The playing cards on the photo represent the decor of an amazing spread from his best selling pop-up book title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-up Adaptation.

Sabuda, who started as children’s book illustrator and author, fell in love with pop-ups for the first time when he was a kid. Waiting at the dentist’s office he got his hands on a pop-up book. He was amazed by the movable paper and pop-ups leaping right off the page. It seemed the perfect distraction for little Sabuda who loved candy but was scared of the dentist. Suddenly, a new hobby was born and Sabuda started collecting pop-up books.

“Everyone started giving me pop-up books as birthday or holiday gifts and soon I was able to make simple pop-ups by carefully examining these books.”

source: Roberts Bio

After he graduated from Pratt, Sabuda started with small jobs illustrating coloring books, writing his own stories and illustrated those as well. Sabuda, who always wanted to create a pop-up book himself, pulled out his old books and started where he left off as a kid, creating better and more advanced pop-ups. His first published pop-up book in 1994, The Christmas Alphabet, became a pop-up classic with successful spin-offs like the beautiful Christmas Pop-up book and the Christmas Alphabet cards collection.

Sabuda has become a big name in the world of modern pop-up books and is not only a favorite author among children but also among adults. Some call him “King of Pops” or “Mr. Pop-up”. Because of his technical way of advanced paper engineering, his books are highly loved among pop-up book collectors. We had the honor of interviewing Robert Sabuda and ask him about his work and vision.

The interview

BPUB – You’re known for your amazing Christmas books. Most of them have in common that you used plain paper and colors for the design. Seems to us that you love Christmas as a subject for pop-up books but have you ever considered a full color Christmas book with your own artwork and illustrations?
RS – That is an excellent question!  For some strange reason, maybe because I grew up in Michigan when there was a lot of snow, I only ever really think about Christmas in terms of bold, graphic colors especially the color of white.  I can’t imagine creating a Christmas book with full color, detailed illustrations but one never knows!

BPUB – As it comes to paper mechanics, do you think there’s a lot to discover or do you think that most techniques are already invented?
RS – Paper mechanics really only come in a very few different varieties but it’s the combinations of those varieties that can make something truly spectacular and unique.  So I’d like to believe that someone, somewhere will always come up with some new, exciting combination that will thrill us all.

BPUB – Did you ever had to make painful concessions to make a pop-up workable for production?
RS – Fortunately, no.  My philosophy is that if I can make a particular mechanism work, a good pop-up book manufacturer will also be able to make it work.  Sometimes I imagine all the hand assemblers dreading a new book coming from me because it will most likely be very complicated!

BPUB – Creating advanced pop-up books under the pressure of a deadline must be exhausting. How do you and your team accomplish to manage it as a project and stay creative at the same time?
RS – Yes it is exhausting!  In fact, when people, especially children, ask what is the most difficult part of creating pop-up books, I always say the deadlines.  I think one of the things works best for us is trying to establish excellent time management skills.  That doesn’t sound very creative or interesting but this single component can mean the difference between forging ahead to success or complete disaster.

BPUB – You give workshops about the basic techniques and you also share wonderful templates on your website but do you also give masterclasses about paper engineering or do you have any plans for the future?
RS – I’m in the process of completing the renovation of a very old, large horse barn on my upstate New York property into artist studios (www.10horse.com) so perhaps one of the classes offered there when we’re ready would be paper engineering.

“My feeling is, if there is one, single young person who decides to make pop-up books because of my influence and knowledge than I have done a small good for the world.”

BPUB – Do you think it’s important to share your knowledge with the next generation pop-up book authors?
RS – Oh, yes!  I distinctly remember, about 20 years ago, being told by a crusty, crass, old-school paper engineer never to share my paper engineering secrets with anyone.  I’ve always been a bit of a creative rebel so thought to myself “I’m going to do the exact opposite of that and share this wonderful world with as many people as I can.”  My feeling is, if there is one, single young person who decides to make pop-up books because of my influence and knowledge than I have done a small good for the world.

BPUB – Is there a technique that you have invented yourself and is now being used in other pop-up books?
RS – Ah, that’s almost a trick question!  I wouldn’t say that I’ve necessarily “invented” anything myself, but I’ve probably taken some basic paper engineering elements and turned them on their heads.  I also have a great fascination with rotating and spinning paper so I try to spend a lot of time developing those kinds of mechanisms.

BPUB – Are there pop-up book authors or paper engineers from the new generation that you admire and would like to share with us?
RS – I think that Marion Bataille is just wonderful!

BPUB – You and Mr. Reinhart are beloved for your collaboration in some already classic pop-up book titles like the Encyclopedia trilogies. The two of you are top authors in this genre and the books you worked on together raise the bar on any level. Do you think that working together creates some kind of competitive vibe that brings out the best in both of you?
RS – I wasn’t raised in a competitive environment at all and try to avoid it at all costs.  I’m always on the look to try and just make the best book I can possibly make.

BPUB – We have to ask and really would like to know, what is your favorite Reinhart pop-up book?
RS – Any one that also has my name on it!

BPUB – Seems to us that some countries still need to discover pop-up books. Do you recognize this and what do you think is needed to introduce pop-up books to those countries?
RS – I think there wherever there is love of books, especially non-traditional books such as pop-ups, you will find a place for pop-ups.  I travel around the world a great deal and am always looking for pop-up books in foreign countries but am not always successful.  I think it often depends on how much of a book culture exists in that country.

BPUB – Todays media is mostly digital and the print media market is under great pressure. Do you think this affects the future of bigger pop-up book productions?
RS – I do.  I can say that traditional publisher here in the U.S. is definitely struggling but the experience of a pop-up book really can’t be replicated in digital format.

BPUB – What do you think about the independent pop-up book publishers movement on crowd funding platforms like KickStarter?
RS – I think they’re great and have contributed to several myself!  There’s no reason the world of publishing has to be dominated by a few big publishing houses if there are enthusiastic people who want to make books.

BPUB – Do you have any “bucket list” subjects for a pop-up book you would like to create in the future?
RS – The series “Pop-up human history.”  But that would take a looooooong time to create!

BPUB – What do you think of bestpopupbooks.com and the idea of a platform just about pop-up books?
RS -Thank you so much for creating it!  It’s so exciting to see a great, new website launched for our community!

BPUB – Thank you Robert for your cooperation with this interview!

Our Robert Sabuda pop-up book video reviews: Complete overview

Website Robert Sabuda: www.robertsabuda.com
Or check out more titles from this creator: Robert Sabuda at Amazon

Special thanks to Wendy Sabuda!

Het bericht Robert Sabuda, Paper Magician (interview) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Christmas Pop-up book by Robert Sabuda (Classic Collectible Pop-Up)

Here is the ultimate classic Christmas pop-up book made by Robert Sabuda. This Christmas pop-up book is derived from Sabuda’s first pop-up book created in 1994, “The Christmas Alphabet“. This tiny pop-up book of only 14 cm tall shows us the letters C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S in 9 beautiful pop-ups which get you in the Christmas mood immediately.

As we have seen more often from Sabuda, he has many of his Christmas related books engineered completely in white paper with charming details in silver and gold. The white pop-ups go beautifully with the solid colored backgrounds in the most beautiful pastel shades.

Altogether this book is a must have for the lovers of Christmas, the winter season, and of course pop-up book collectors. This classic Robert Sabuda Christmas pop-up book can not be missing in your collection!

If you are looking for a very special and original Christmas gift for someone or if you want to buy this book for yourself visit the following Amazon link:

Order at Amazon: Christmas (Classic Collectible Pop-Up)
Author: Robert Sabuda

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If you’ve enjoyed this video, please take a look at our previously uploaded Christmas pop-up book video reviews:

Winter in White (Classic Collectible Pop-Up)
Author: Robert Sabuda

Snowflakes: A Pop-Up Book
Author: Jennifer Chushcoff
Paper engineering: Yevgeniya Yeretskaya

Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-Up
Author: Robert Sabuda

Wonderful Christmas pop-up books (teaser)
Various authors

Het bericht Christmas Pop-Up (Classic) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Winter in White (Classic Collectible Pop-Up)

The countdown to Christmas has begun and therefore we’ve made a new Christmas pop-up book video review!

Enjoy this classic, collectible Christmas pop-up book called Winter in White, created by paper engineer Robert Sabuda. As we can see more often from Sabuda, this pop-up book is completely engineered in white paper enriched with some lovely details in silver and gold.

This tiny little Christmas pop-up book of only 13 cm tall shows us some beautiful wintery scenes, one more beautiful than another, giving you these warm and cozy Christmas feels immediately!

If you are looking for a very special and original Christmas gift for someone or if you want to buy this book for yourself visit the following Amazon link:

Order at Amazon: Winter in White
Author: Robert Sabuda

From now until Christmas we will show you the most wonderful Christmas themed pop-up books to give you the ultimate Christmas feeling! Watch our teaser for an idea of what to expect and stay tuned for more Christmas pop-up book video reviews!

Het bericht Winter in White (Classic Collectible Pop-Up) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Cookie Count: A tasty pop-up book by Robert Sabuda is definitly a must have pop-up book for kids and grown-ups. Robert Sabuda takes you on a counting journey through a bakery filled with delicious cookies of all different kinds and even a gingerbread house pops straight out of this book! Cookie Count is a brightly colored, Christmas themed pop-up book featuring ten pop-up spreads counting from one to ten along with wonderful illustrations en cool pop-up techniques.

If you are looking for a very special and original Christmas gift for someone or if you want to buy this book for yourself visit the following Amazon link:

Order at Amazon: Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-up
Author: Robert Sabuda

Het bericht Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-Up Book verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up by Robert Sabuda is one of our favorite pop-up books. This wonderful and amazing edition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the original Wizard of Oz publication by L. Frank Baum. A pop-up book that contains the short version of Baum’s original story and beautiful artwork in the style of W.W. Denslow. It’s a family book for all ages and feels like magic every time when you open up a spread. The combination of classic artwork and the contrast with holographic foil on every spread and mini pop-up gives an extra dimension to this already impressive piece of pop-up art.

Make flowers grow

This already classic pop-up book title by Sabuda contains all kinds of innovative techniques to make paper pop-out. One of the highlights in this book is the scene where the Wizard of Oz floats in a balloon above Dorothy and her friends. It’s an impressive mix of design and paper engineering. This book takes you into a world full of depth, surprises and green adventure. Visit the palace of the Wizard of Oz, build a hot air balloon, make flowers grow and watch out for the flying monkeys. It’s all in this book that will blow your mind. A must have for everyone who loves advanced pop-up books!

Author: L. Frank Baum
Paper engineering: Robert Sabuda

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz pop-up book by Robert Sabuda is number 4 on our top 10 favorite pop-up books list of all times. Check out the rest of our top 10 here.

Find out more about Robert Sabuda and his amazing work at our pop-up book authors page.

Order this book at Amazon: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up

Don’t forget to Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube channel. More pop-up book videos coming soon! If you have any requests for pop-up books, let us know by leaving a comment.

Het bericht The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Pop-Up Book verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Het bericht Sabuda’s Best and most amazing pop-up book spreads verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.