We at Childrensbookstore.com love this little pop-up book from 1949. It is a spiral bound edition that beautifully captures children at play before the advent of TV, video games and the like. The illustrations in this pop-up are reminiscent of the popular “Dick and Jane” storybooks of the time. The five pop-up scenes are: Playground, Zoo, Farm, Circus, and Camping.
This particular example is in excellent condition. Aside from the wonderful pop-ups, the book includes two poems, a song and two stories.
The pop-ups in this book follow the well-trod path of pop-ups that open vertically and reveal several layers of perspective to the viewer. This style of paper engineering was very popular for more than 100 years. It was used to generate promotional pieces, calendars and many pop-up books that were marketed to children. The style offers the viewer a layered view of the image with difference elements of the images at varied perspective levels.
These vertical pop-ups are essentially large pieces of paperboard that were subjected to a large, single die-cut. The various layers of the pop-up were created by the complex die itself that cut out the image at different levels. This style of paper-engineering could be rapidly manufactured and assembled for sale at a low cost of production. Some vertical die-cut pop-ups are very large. This particular piece is larger in area than many other contemporary pop-ups at 10 x 8 inches.
If you can, sit down and watch the video of the pop-up with a child who’s used to modern toys. You will see that even with the radical technological differences between 1949 and today, kids are still kids. They enjoy running, jumping, going to the zoo, camping and, well being kids.