juvenile, pop-up, dragons, mrr, fiction

Thinly told stories, only average pop-ups, too few pages

I bought this for my 4-year-old son because he loves pop-up books and is very interested in dragons. This book was a disappointment, though. There are only five pop-ups really, to go with five dragon stories, each told in a two-page spread. The stories, drawn from common legends around the world, are retold in a highly compressed summary form that fails to evoke any of their original drama or magic. The popups are also disappointing. First, there are too few: again, just five, one for each story. Worse, only one of these is reasonably sophisticated or impressive; the rest are rather simplistic. Many other contemporary pop-up books display much more creativity in their design and are more compelling in their storytelling.

If you're thinking about getting this for a dragon-lover, skip it. For fans of pop-up books or books with moving parts, take a look at Matthew Reinhardt's books instead, or Zelinsky's award-winning Knick-Knack-Paddywhack. ( )