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Publishers Launch Pop-Up Books For Grownups
Sex, Celebs and Elvis – what more could a reader want?
jk840@nyu.edu
Open Gary Greenberg’s book about phobias to the page about ophidiophobia, and readers who fear snakes will be terrified to see a cobra jumping out at them.
Flip to the page on dentophobia and a dentist leaps out with a drill.
It isn’t your imagination running wild – it’s a moveable book for adults.
Pop-up books are back – but now they’re being pitched to grown-ups. Betting that the entertaining illustrations and 3D mechanics that keep children busy for hours might also captivate adults, some publishers are bringing out pop-ups on visual adult topics, like celebs and architecture. And sex. Watch for them in your local bookstore this fall.
Book experts see such books as a great escape from a fast-paced high-tech world.
“Many Americans spend more time than ever in front of computer terminals or television screens,” said John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle. “So I think this drives us ever more towards things we can see, touch and hold, like a book.”
The first authentic pop-up book was created in 1929 by S. Louis Giraud, a British publisher (though the first mechanical book dates back to the 13th century, when a Catalan poet used a revolving disc to illustrate his theories). The pop-up’s heyday was in the 1960s, when every child probably had a couple on his shelf.
“I don’t think anyone substitutes a pop-up for a textbook, but certainly enjoys the time spent with them more,” said Ellen Rubin, a collector and lecturer on pop-up books who calls herself the Popuplady. “In a way, they are the ‘Cliff Notes’ of reading.”
The New York publisher Melcher Media will release two new pop-up books for adults this fall: “The Pop-up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns” and “The Pop-up Book of Sex.”
Celebrity Meltdowns “has at least eight full pop-up scenes of contemporary celebrities being caught - sometimes literally - with their pants down,” said Ann Montanaro, president and founder of The Movable Book Society.
The aspiration is to bring celeb stories to life, and to bring entertainment and pop-culture to the reader in a tactile way.
“These books are a lot of fun!” said Jules Herbert, humor buyer for Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
Barnes & Noble will feature “Celebrity Meltdowns” as a holiday gift book, Herbert said, stressing that pop-ups are meant to be interactive.
“They make great coffee table books and…really…they are best when opened and enjoyed.”
Pop-ups can also give readers the – literally – inside story.
This fall, the Philadelphia-based Quirk Books will bring out “Graceland: An Interactive Pop-up Tour,” featuring the Elvis Presley estate.
The book lets readers peek into cabinets and drawers - areas strictly off-limits on a real tour of Graceland, said Quirk president and publisher David Borgenicht.
“It’s not just a novelty,” said Borgenicht. “The paper engineering allows you to really see and explore the rooms, in a way that a traditional coffee table book wouldn’t.”
The book, the company’s first foray into the world of pop-ups, is like a behind-the scenes-tour. Quirk hopes it’ll become a collector’s item.
Some adults have been surreptitiously enjoying kids’ moveable books for years.
Robert Sabuda is one of the best-known pop-up book creators. His topics are meant for children, but his delicate and complex pop-ups seem more suitable for adults. And that’s created a large adult following.
“The success of Robert Sabuda’s books has encouraged others to go into the fray,” said Rubin.
Pop-ups may not captivate adults as thoroughly they do children, though.
“Children will read books over and over again and wear out the pop-ups and tabs,” Montanaro said. “Adults will read them once or twice, perhaps share them with friends, and then put them on the shelf. [And] pop-ups for adults do not get handled in the same way they do for children, so there will not be the repeat purchases.”
Too pop-up books tend to cover narrow topics in detail, which could attract just a niche market.
“I don’t know if I would buy one, unless it was about something that I really liked,” admitted Janet Ramirez of New York, who was shopping in Barnes & Noble for a pop-up book for her five-year-old niece.
Freeman thinks success will depend upon whether adults who enjoy Sabuda’s pop-ups will take to similarly-styled books on other subjects.
“A pop-up Joy of Cooking?” posited Freeman, “Now there’s something I could use.”
Pink Cadillac? The publisher hopes his book on Graceland might become a collector’s item.
Some pop-ups claim to take you places you’d never penetrate on your own, like Elvis’ wardrobe or a rock star’s bedroom.
Photos Courtesy of Quirk Books