The Movable Mother Goose (Mother Goose Pop-Up) [Hardcover]

Robert Sabuda (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Mother Goose Pop-Up

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 12 pages
• Publisher: Little Simon; Pop edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689811926
• ISBN-13: 978-0689811920
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Anthologies

More About the Author

ROBERT SABUDA is the co-creator of the first book in this series, ENCYCLOPEDIA PREHISTORICA: DINOSAURS. And he is the force behind many stunning best-selling pop-up books, including America the Beautiful, Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey. MATTHEW REINHART is the co-creator of ENCYCLOPEDIA PREHISTORICA: DINOSAURS. And he has created many other award-winning pop-up books, including the Young Naturalist's series, The Ark, Animal Opposites, and Cinderella: A Pop-Up Fairy Tale.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mother Goose Pops Up, December 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Movable Mother Goose (Mother Goose Pop-Up) (Hardcover)

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.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well done pop-up book, November 26, 2008

By 

Tenna Merchent (Noblesville, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Movable Mother Goose (Mother Goose Pop-Up) (Hardcover)

Length:: 1:09 Mins

This is a brief video overview of this attractive pop-up book.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars glorious, sometimes busy, pop-up classic, February 24, 2002

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Movable Mother Goose (Mother Goose Pop-Up) (Hardcover)

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.