A pop-up book on how to make pop-ups. An introduction to techniques—angle folds, parallel folds and “extra mechanics”—yields to a diagrammatically deconstructed pop-up robot with the different types of folds and mechanics illustrated on either side of it. The subsequent spreads provide budding paper engineers with pop-out pieces of a dragon, a castle, Frankenstein’s lab and a jungle, each piece carefully labeled for application to the corresponding illustration. Foldout pages contain both instructions for assembly and “mini master classes” on more advanced techniques. Some of the sequencing on these pages is a little murky, but patient children will likely find success. It’s a bit of a shame, though, that there’s not more free rein given to readers’ imaginations, but one hopes the exercise will give them confidence to create their own pop-ups. (Pop-up nonfiction. 8-14)
