Thursday, November 4, 2021

Pop-Up Books

Who doesn't love a good pop-up book? They make reading fun for kids and adults! We are going to share some of our favorites as well as some sites to learn how to make your own.


 I Will Never, Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

We LOVE this one. My son wasn't great about eating vegetables as a 6 month old, and we came across this book by accident as it was part of a box of books I randomly bought. It turned out to be one of our all- time favorites and our son also turned out to be an excellent eater! I highly recommend the book, pop-up version or not!

Check out the pop-up engineering video here.

Listen to the pop-up read aloud here.

Check out the TV show episode here.

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The Color Monster by Anna Llenas


This book is great! Like the Little Spot books and others that are similar, emotions are identified by colors. The pop-ups here are creative and adorable. My son loves interacting with them and my daughters can't wait to get their hands on this fiercely protected book! The price for this version is not quite double the price of a regular paperback, but for us it was worth it. 


Here is a read aloud video showing the pop-ups.


Yellow (happiness)

Green (calm)

Blue (sadness)


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This Book is a Planetarium by Kelli Anderson


It's actually many different things - a planetarium, a speaker, an instrument ,a decoder, a calendar, a spiralgraph.... Most of all, it's fun. I can see this being used for travel especially. I imagine my son using in on long car rides, in hotels, and on planes once we start going longer distances from home again. Kelli has thought of it all!

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The Star Spangled Banner by Calvert Gamwell

This one is cute, and a nice and easy way to introduce the National Anthem of the United States. It's currently out of print, so you'll have to snag a used copy. Its pop-ups aren't anything too fancy, but they do show different ways and places people can be patriotic.

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Auntie Annie has free basic printable pop-up cards. With the ability to print in color or black and white and picture directions, this is a great place to get started with making your own pop-ups.


Best Pop-Up Books has it all! From tutorials to a forum to book lists and even some freebies, you can find whatever it is you're looking for here. Paper engineering is a great skill to have to introduce kids into design and the engineering process. It's also a fun way to spice up projects you may assign students.