The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volume 2: Platforms and Props: How to Make Pop-Ups Step-by-Step (Spiral-bound) by Carol Barton

• 01/17/2014
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The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volume 2: Platforms and Props: How to Make Pop-Ups Step-by-Step (Spiral-bound)
Carol Barton
Popular Kinetics Press (2008)
ISBN 9780962775222
Reviewed by Simon Smith (age 9) for Reader Views (8/08)

A pop-up is paper folded so that when you open a page, it will jump out.  “The Paper Pocket Engineer, Volume 2” is a book on how to make pop-ups.  It is the perfect book for rainy days when there is nothing else fun to do. I want to tell you though, that this is one of those books where you cut out some of the book to make the pop-ups, so you’ll literally have less of the book when you finish.

It has some really cool projects. For example, they tell you how to make a “floating” pop-up with a city with a little helicopter.  There is also a turtle and a street scene with some cars. They are pretty easy as long as you don’t lose any of the pieces (I did) and know that when something says “connect to #3” and another tab says the same thing, then join both of them.  Some of the pop-ups have realistic artwork like it was taken from a photo and some of them look like cartoon drawings.  The finished pop-ups have a base as big as a regular sheet of paper but the actual pop-up is much smaller.  They are pretty easy to cut out.

There are about eighteen pop-ups in the book.  After you are done with the pop-up, you can put it back in the book because it has these little folders and then you can take it out again and look at it whenever you want.  The book has a spiral binding so it will lay flat making it is easier to read the directions.  The book can still be used after you have cut out all of the pop-ups because most of the directions are still in there and if you save the paper that was left over from cutting out the pop-up pieces, then you might be able to duplicate the pieces and put your own drawings on them.  I think the youngest child that could do these without getting frustrated would be about age eight.  “The Paper Pocket Engineer, Volume 2” by Carol Barton is good for boys and girls and would be a good gift for a kid.