As I was flipping through the pages of my science journal I was a bit surprised to see a book review on a pop-up book, of all things. I mean, here's a serious science magazine with pages full of scholarly topics and mysteries of the universe and the like, yet they decide to spend that issue's single book review on a pop-up book!?! After reading the review and finding an opened copy of the book at the local bookstore, I understood that this book was something special.

A Pop-Up of Prehistoric Proportions

The Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs is not your typical dinosaur book. Created by master pop-up artists Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, the 3D pop-up designs are unlike anything I've ever seen before. Amazingly intricate and detailed, the dinosaurs really DO spring to life from the pages. These are not your simple 1-or-2 layer pop-ups - these consist of layer after layer of folded paper that combine to make stunningly lifelike dinosaurs that are quite simply engineering feats!

Please don't be put-off when I inform you that the book only contains 12 pages (or 6 2-page openings), because each of those pages contains mini-books, often with their own pop-ups, for a grand total of 35 pop-ups in all. The design really is downright ingenious -- the largest pop-ups take up lots of space in the upper center of each page, and due to all the folded paper each page is quite bulky when the book is closed. That leaves lots of room, both horizontal and vertical, at the 4 corners of each page, and the authors utilized this space very well with their mini-book concept.

Even the colors are stand-out. Each piece of paper that goes into one of the pop-ups is colored in such a way that it appears to have texture, adding both to the beauty and the complexity of each creature.

The book is rather bulky, with a width of 2½ inches when closed. You might think that, with all of the folded paper and mini-books on each page, that there would be lots of paper flopping around as you turn a page, but the book's creators were clever and included little tabs that you tuck the mini-book's pages into to keep them closed, keeping each page neat and tidy and flop-free as the page is turned.

I know that I've been going on and on about the pop-ups, but I shouldn't ignore the text because it is very good as well. It is educational, containing dinosaur information ranging from facts about a single dinosaur species all the way down to sections on how paleontologists' ideas have changed about dinosaurs down through the years. The information is up-to-date, with text on how modern day birds are now thought to be the closest relatives to the two-legged dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx, raptors, and T-Rex. Sometimes the text has a cute, tongue-in-cheek feel, with clever headings (such as calling Pachycephalosaurus, with their bony scalps, "The original headbangers", the debate on whether sauropods lived on land or in the water is titled "Surf or Turf", and the hooked nose-horn of Einiosaurus is discussed under the heading "Was it a Can Opener?") In all, the book addresses over 50 different species of dinosaur, along with parts on what happened to them and how paleontologists learn about them.

The age recommendation on the Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs reads "Ages 5 and up", no doubt because younger ones simply won't appreciate how amazing these pop-ups are and are likely to destroy them. My four year old desperately wants to poke and prod the largest of the paper-dinosaurs (heck, I do too) so this is a book we store high up on the bookshelf so he doesn't have access unless a parent is nearby.

Our Thoughts and Experiences:

I have a husband and 4 year old son who are both dinosaur lovers, so as soon as I read about the Encyclopedia Prehistoria I knew that I wanted to see it for myself. Because pop-ups in general are delicate, and because this book is full of them, the book does come wrapped in cellophane, so you might have a hard time finding an open one in a bookstore. We were lucky enough to find one that was already opened, and as soon as my husband and son looked through it there was no question that we would own one.

Overall I have been extremely pleased with our newest dinosaur book. The information is broken down into short little sections that are just the right length for keeping my little guy's attention, yet are interesting enough that Mommy and Daddy don't get bored reading it to him. You might think that, at only 12 pages, we would breeze through the book in no time, however there is a lot of information on the big pages and in the little mini-books as well. The book is long enough that we can't read the whole thing to my son at bed-time. Instead we go through a few mini-books and selected pages, saving other sections of the book for other nights.

My personal favorite pop-up page is the one where the T-Rex lunges out at you. Rather than a full-body, the page contains a T-Rex from the shoulders up. He pops right out of the page, teeth and all, trying to take a bite out of the reader. Due to the amazing pop-up design, you can see into the T-Rex's mouth, past his teeth and even down into his throat (past the little opening at the back of the mouth where the uvula hangs down). Opening and closing the pages a bit makes his mouth open wider or chomp down, and it is just fun to see him move.

One of my favorite mini-books is on paleontology. Not only do I find its history interesting, but one of my favorite smaller pop-ups is of two men fighting over a dinosaur skull (illustrating the story of American paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, who tried to outdo each other in discovering and naming the most new dinosaurs, as well as sabotaging each other, in a bitter battle dubbed "The Bone Wars"). I find it terribly amusing to have pop-ups of two guys in a book full of amazing dinosaur pop-ups.

Admittedly I am not the dinosaur expert in my house, however I've read enough books to my little one to know quite a bit on the topic. I still managed to learn new things when reading The Encyclopedia Prehistoria: Dinosaurs. I was amused to read about how some dinosaurs were put-together erroneously. By now everyone knows about the infamous Brontosaurus mix-up, but I didn't know that the iguanodon's spike was originally thought to be on his nose rather than his thumbs. My son likes the sections on how many dinosaur species were good parents (with the title "Mommysaurus", which he also loves).

As far as complaints go, mine are fairly minor. As cool as the book is, I do wish the cover was a bit more substantial. The book is thick (but not heavy), and the hard cover just feels a bit flimsy for a book of this size. While I do find the content interesting and it covers lots of topics, don't expect it to go into much detail on anything. It points out interesting high points of many dinosaurs and dinosaur-related topics, but there just isn't enough space for in-depth research. Of all of the pop-ups, only the large one on the last page (Archaeopteryx) doesn't fold down nicely when I close the pages, and I worry that someday my little guy is going to crush him so that he won't work at all anymore. I have to be careful when turning that page, making sure one of the dinosaur's intricate wings tucks down propery over that page's mini-book. Lastly, if you've got little kids (like I do), you probably will find yourself stressing about how gentle (or not) your child is with this book. My little guy gets so excited he grabs and squeezes and isn't quite as careful with these paper-pieces-of-art as Mommy might like.

Final Thoughts:

This book doesn't contain conventional pop-ups. It contains beautiful paper works of art! The pop-ups are full 3-D characters made from layer upon layer of colorful cardboard. Not only is the artwork spectacular, but the text is fun and well worth reading in and of itself. The Encyclopedia Prehistoria: Dinosaurs is a real keepsake piece, and I am very pleased with this addition to the dinosaur section of our home library.




Recommended: Yes