The Night Before Christmas Pop-up
The ingenious Robert Sabuda returns for yet another inspired pop-up book, a follow-up to The 12 Days of Christmas and The Christmas Alphabet, that retells Clement Clarke Moore’s classic yuletide rhyme. Sabuda remains a master of the medium, constructing a series of varied and well-engineered scenes: Santa pops in and out of the chimney, beds fold out, a window shade rises and falls, and, in a clever nod to Moore’s not-a-creature-was-stirring text, it’s a family of mice who are receiving Santa’s nighttime visit. A pull-out tab even lets readers interact, when Santa’s sleigh glides out on the clouds and over an intricately realized village. It’s hard to pick a favorite scene here, but you can bet that kids will love the book’s pop de r�sistance, in which Santa’s lead reindeer nearly fly right up your nose (if they don’t knock you out of your chair first). The book’s first-rate production and lively pop-ups are enough to recommend it, but Sabuda goes one better by showing the thoughtful restraint to make most of the pop-ups almost entirely white. A few accents of color catch your eye (Santa’s red suit and silver pipe), but—as befits such a dynamic book—the visual focus stays on the action.
Pages: 12
Ages: All