Robert Crowther's Pop-up Dinosaur ABC

PreS-Gr 1—Twenty-six dinosaurs pop up from behind a colorful letter-labeled door, accompanied by brief facts about the creature. The compact size of the flaps, lined up in rows against generous white space, sets up the surprise for each appearance. Arrows indicate which direction each flap opens, lending pleasing variety to the process. A downward pull of the tall rectangular "D," for example, triggers unexpected horizontal movement as the long tail and neck of Diplodocus emerge in opposite directions. Pull-tabs are mixed in with pop-ups to add variety. Most of the pop-up effects support the written information. The plates and spikes of Kentrosaurus are prominent in the pop-up illustration, for example, while Oviraptor's neck reaches downward to protect its eggs from a predator, demonstrating the guarding characteristic noted in the text. The cartoon illustrations aren't meant to be directly accurate anatomical representations, which works fine in most instances: the exaggerated jaws of Herrasaurus, for example, call attention to a prominent feature. On the other hand, while the look and size of the pop-up Tyrannosaurus are impressive, its upright posture is misleading. The clean layout allows readers to absorb each dinosaur one by one; open flaps often overlap their neighboring letters and are clearly meant to be viewed one at a time.