You know those magical pop-up books you see in movies sometimes? The ones that are so elaborate and complex that they couldn’t possibly exist in real life? Yeah, well, so much for that. Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda have created nothing short of magic with this three-book mythology-themed set. Each page has one large, impressive, center-piece pop-up that often extends far beyond the boundaries of the book. In addition to that there are little flaps on every page that lead to their own mini-pop-ups as well as some different stuff, such as a story that flips through the pages when you pull a tab (Gods & Heroes).

If you plan on getting one of these for your kid, maybe you should think twice if he/she is very young. The pop-ups are large and elaborate and, as it goes, more delicate than you may be used to. A rambunctious child could easily bend the paper which could possibly cause some of the pop-ups to fail to fold back in properly, causing even more damage. For example, there’s a mansion pop-up in the Fairies volume that will fail to fold back in if a paper tab is resting on the wrong side of another tab (they are not glued or attached in any way and it’s easy to bump it and move it to the wrong side). This happened when my girlfriend and I were looking at the book for the first time and, upon noticing that the pop-up wasn’t folding back in properly, we started examining it. It took probably five minutes to figure out what was wrong. That’s how intricate the designs of these things are. You have been warned.
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I wanted this pop-up book as soon as I saw it. Every page contains a large pop-out picture as well as smaller pop-up books on the side of the pages that provides new facts. I could see this book getting students hooked on reading fairytale's after reading this story. While the information is fictional it expanded my understanding of fairytales and taught me new vocabulary. Every flip of the page opened up a new world. My favorite page includes a giant tree where the branches reach far above the top of the book and looks so inviting...if only I could sit and read below that tree :-) ( )

Breathtaking paper tech and beautiful design. ( )