Q & A: Robert Sabuda
A chat with pop-up artist Robert Sabuda
Staff -- School Library Journal, 10/1/2000
There are pop-up books, and there are POP-UP books. Robert Sabuda's latest extravaganza, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (to be released next month by Simon & Schuster) belongs to the latter, jaw-dropping category. Sabuda, who is an illustrator and a paper engineer, spent the past two years creating 3-D scenes that include a cyclone that actually swirls and a hot-air balloon that dangles high above Emerald City. Sabuda spoke to us from his studio in New York City.
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What does a pop-up book offer that a traditional picture book doesn't? I have twin nieces who are three and a half. They live in Michigan, so I don't see them all the time. They treat their pop-up books--and some of them are my pop-up books, they're pretty delicate--they tend to treat those books much better. I guess it depends on what kind of kid you have. If you've got one that runs around like a maniac, he's probably going to eat it alive and rip it up. But my mother sits down with those girls and they know this is something special, this is different now from your board books or whatever your books: something's going to happen, and we have to pay attention and be careful with it.
