Book Arts Bash: Picture Books: Pop Up Book

That's a wrap! Congratulations to all our winners. The Book Arts Bash now has its own domain name, and a brand new web site for a new Bash in 2010. Visit us here!

Please visit the Favorite Poem Project, and hear Americans read the poetry they love.

Submission Guidelines:

Picture books are storybooks where the text is embedded in illustrations on each page. The pop-up category includes pop-ups, lift the flaps, sliding panels, and other feats of paper engineering.

Acceptable illustrations are pencil, colored pencil, pen, crayon, marker, paint, collage, photographs or computer generated illustrations. If photographs or computer illustrations are used, they must be integrated into the pages of the book. That is, the illustrations and text must appear together on the page, as in a published work. Picture books must be at least five pages long. While there is no word count limitation and no maximum page length, keep in mind that picture books are generally under 32 pages and contain fewer than 1500 words. Text can be typed or printed clearly.

We accept collaborations between authors and illustrators, but you much enter the age category appropriate for the oldest contributor.

Teaching this Genre:

Even the most reluctant writers will be enchanted by the opportunity to make their own pop-up books. So many young boys are reluctant to put pen to paper, yet love creating the most intricate engineering creations. Pop-up books allow them to create a book using activities they love. They'll get to visualize the project in 3-D before they start and see the product grow as they work. Yet pop-up books are not just for budding engineers, little artists will love the creative challenge as well. At first glance, poo-ups may look rather daunting to make, yet if you follow a few easy steps, the sky is the limit.

We highly recommend two books by Joan Irvine:

The books are very child friendly and even show how to bind your pop-up book.

Want to know more about pop-ups? Let the experts show you how!

Robert Sabuda: There can not be a child alive who hasn't experienced the joys of Robert Sabuda's magical pop-up books. The dinosaurs in Encylopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs you can almost sense the terror the prehistoric prey must have felt. Have fun exploring pop-ups with Robert and even make a few pop-ups using his guidance. Watch Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart talk about the process of making pop-up books.

David Carter: David Carter, author of many pop-up bug books shares .pdf die pages from his book,
"Elements of Pop-up". Watch his movies on how to make pop-ups.

Marc Hiner: Marc Hinergives a fairly technical description of how commercial pop-up books are made.

Carol Barton: Your budding paper engineer will find great inspiration from Carol Barton.
Especially her page of children's exhibits.

The Adventures of Cybee The "Adventures of Cyberbee" is full of good links on the history and
how to make pop-ups.

Japtheth's movie on how to make a pop-up animal in 5 min. This is a very easy to follow video
which makes it perfect for young children.

How To Make A Pop-Up Book - Free videos are just a click away

Alike: Alike gives a very simple, but thorough introduction on How a Book is Made.
ABC pop-ups and more Scholastic shows a simple way to make ABC pop-ups. This is a technique that
can be modified to make any number of different pop-ups. The beauty of this method is that it alleviates
the need for intricate cutting which makes it a surefire winner for the younger set. This website shows how
this simple technique can be adapted to make something much more sophisticated. Want something more
complicated? Have a look here. This website shows how you can make a more copy heavy pop-ups.
Enchanted Learning An easy way for your younger child to gain confidence in making pop-ups, is for
her to practice making the pop-up cards from Enchanted Learning
Masterpiece art instruction Masterpiece art instruction shows a different way of making pop-ups
Keith Moseley Looking for inspiration? Look no further than Keith Moseley's website. It's chock full
of the most beautiful pop-ups you ever did see.