20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

Graphic storytelling and pop-up technology combine to deliver a fast-paced, flashy rendition of the Jules Verne classic. Smaller pop-ups concealed beneath lift-the-flap folios yield to ever-more-elaborate tableaux as the story progresses and the adventures beneath the waves escalate. Particularly effective is a wheel that opens a porthole aperture to reveal the eye of a giant squid and then the creature itself. The dialogue is rendered more or less colloquially, the harpoonist Land’s earthy declarations contrasting effectively with the professor’s pomposity and Captain Nemo’s madness. Unfortunately, the sequencing is sometimes difficult to follow, with panels under flaps and spreading over tableaux. Still, an undeniably cool and quick introduction to an otherwise stuffy classic. (Pop-up/graphic classic. 10-14)