Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0763642533, Hardcover)

Toilet paper was invented in 1857. Zippers were first used on clothing in the 1920s--and came with an instruction manual! Native Americans made popcorn more than 5,000 years ago. The first e-mail message was sent in 1973. Who knew?

In this remarkable, elaborate pop-up book by a master paper engineer, readers learn scads of fun facts about everyday household items, such as CDs, nylon stockings, skateboards, refrigerators, belt buckles, piggy banks, pens, cameras, and sandwiches. Trivia buffs and regular humans alike will gawk in delighted wonder at this interactive, 3-D paper extravaganza, with oven doors you can open, videos you can insert into a VCR, model train sets you can spin around a track, and a shower curtain you can pull back--whoops! Someone's in there! Discover some incredible, entertaining, and amusing facts about objects you never looked twice at before.

Robert Crowther is no slouch when it comes to amazing pop-up books. Author of the remarkable Robert Crowther's Deep Down Underground: Pop-Up Book of Amazing Facts and Feats and others, Crowther creates fantastically complex yet reader-friendly paper sculpture in his books. Readers of all ages will enjoy finding more and more details hidden behind the tiny flaps, wheels, and cupboards in this very unusual house tour, which leads from kitchen to living room to bathroom to bedroom to garage. A time-line with still more inventions is included. (Ages 6 to 11) --Emilie Coulter