2006
Publishers Launch Pop-Up Books for Grownups
The Syracuse Post-Standard
Sunday magazine Stars
December 3, 2006
(hard copy only)
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.”