Product Description

Robert Sabuda's The Movable Mother Goose puts a new spin on traditional nursery rhymes as they come alive in a glorious explosion of color!

This pop-up extravaganza by award winner Robert Sabuda is destined to become a new classic for all generations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18926 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 12 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780689811920
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
This elaborate pop-up book adds a spectacular twist to Mother Goose's well-loved rhymes. Paper artist Robert Sabuda, preeminent patriarch of modern pop-up engineering, brings yet another explosion of motion and color to his latest masterpiece. Attributing animal personalities to nursery-rhyme characters, he surprises young readers time and again. In "Jack Be Nimble," for example, the fellow leaping lithely over a candlestick is none other than a grasshopper. And the Man in the Moon is seen from a startling perspective: he has decidedly alien features! Sabuda's quirky take on traditional rhymes, combined with his fantastic folding, moving, spinning paper sculptures, will have pop-up fanciers and Mother Goose devotees clamoring for more. Sturdier than most pop-ups, these three-dimensional constructions are nonetheless vulnerable to tiny grabbing hands. At his best, Sabuda creates breathtaking displays of pop-up craftsmanship, as in the "four and twenty blackbirds" bursting rowdily out of a pie, mirrored sunglasses on every one. At his worst, he creates slightly bewildering beings, such as the star-shaped Jill in "Jack and Jill" tumbling down a mysterious edifice. He may occasionally (and understandably--what a fun job!) get carried away with his engineering feats. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly
Sabuda (ABC Disney) upholds his reputation for mind-bogglingly elaborate paper confections with this surprise-filled collection of nursery rhymes. An all-animal cast makes for some amusing twists: Little Bo-Peep is a sheepdog, Miss Muffet a fly (with good reason to be frightened by a spider) and nimble Jack a grasshopper. Each spread has a central rhyme, the pop-up for which unfolds with the turn of a page; rectangular flaps introduce additional rhymes. The creatures, rendered in matte blocks of color (plus some metallic foil), take on the form of a cut-paper sculpture. The pop-ups are occasionally difficult to decipher: it takes some analysis, for example, to figure out that Jack and Jill are ants tumbling down an anthill. Though Sabuda seems particularly fond of insects, their unfolding limbs and body segments can make them the most challenging to decode. However, the virtuoso pieces are astonishing, particularly the mice that race up and down for "Hickory Dickory Dock" and the four-and-twenty sunglasses-sporting blackbirds that burst from a pie. All ages. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Sabuda continues his run of groundbreaking pop-ups with this buggy (in more than one sense of the term) take on a handful of Mother Goose rhymes. Each spread opens up a dazzling large construction, with one to five smaller pop-ups behind satellite flaps: two cockroaches perch on cups; Jack and Jill, a pair of termites, roll down their mound toward a waiting anteater; and the menacing spider that frightens Miss Muffet is topped by a positively scream-inducing bedbug that lunges out as its flap is raised. Other effects include a huge spreading peacock, a glorious burst of blackbirds, and a small splotch of peanut butter on a railroad track that is an architectural triumph. The downside to such complex effects is their sometimes-extreme fragility; more problematic is the extreme stylization of the figures to the point that Jack and Jill are recognizable only from context, and candle-jumper Jack is an indecipherable tangle of legs and antennae. Still, Sabuda proves again that he is as much an artist as a paper engineer, capable not only of designing cutting-edge special effects, but of using them in ingeniously creative ways.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Mother Goose Pops Up
Robert Sabuda is my hero. His paper engineering is without equal so I took his Movable Mother Goose to a first grade classroom to try it out. The kids loved the rhymes, and as the "payoff" for reading them out loud, they got to DEMO the popup that went with the rhyme. The book not only survived all 25 kids reading and demonstrating the popup, they even learned how to carefully tuck the delicate paper pieces back so that the book would not get trashed. I don't think kids ever outgrow their love of popups, and I am also convinced that popups are THE perfect birthday present for every kid (and sometimes even for adults)so I'm glad that Sabuda has tackled this classic poetry. I'd recommend this one for ages five to eight, but even high school kids would enjoy it and start thinking of ways to build popups for their own favorite nursery rhymes using David Carter's book, The Elements of Pop-Up, a Book for Aspiring Paper Engineers.

glorious, sometimes busy, pop-up classic
I was thrilled to find that genius paper engineer Sabuda was tackling these classic rhymes, and the book lives up to expectations. The artist's work is, as always, creative and fun.

There are six two-page spreads, each with a large central figure (one of Bo-peep's sheep, Miss Muffet's spider, a peacock, the hickory dickory clock, Mr. and Mrs. Sprat, and a pie bursting with blackbirds) and several smaller rhyme fold-outs. This set-up makes the book a little "busy" in my opinion, but our two-year old adores it, so what's my aesthetic sensibility matter? The material is heavy paper, and it's held up well to our toddler's exploration. Some of the mechanisms are a little confusing and/or delicate, but nothing especially difficult. Nice, bright colors are employed for the animal characters used to illustrate these tales, usually to comic effect.

This is a lovely book for children, and would likely make a good first pop-up.

The best baby gift
This book was a gift to my daughter when she was born. We have read it to her ever since then and she adores it! If she is cranky, she will get quiet when she sees us reach for the book. The illustrations are captivating, to say the least.