David A. Carter (1) (1957–)

Selected by The New York Times as one of the "Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2009," David A. Carter's White Noise is a pop-up book with a purpose. Described by its creator as "an experiment with color and structure," it is meant to make noise, as each pop-up unfolds.

Bold colors and shapes explode from every page, in abstract designs that puzzle and fascinate, and while I wouldn't describe the noise produced as particularly impressive, certain spreads (like the ones approximating show more musical instruments) do indeed produce some interesting sounds. But although Carter's idea is innovative, and his paper engineering accomplished, I'm not really sure that this succeeds as a children's book, nor would I have selected it for any "best of" lists.

I acknowledge that I'm no pop-up aficionado, although I do try to stay abreast of the latest Sabuda developments, but it has struck me, of late, that the majority of pop-up creations, while ostensibly aimed at children, are really being produced for adults. Which isn't necessarily a negative thing - I've no objection to adult pop-ups. But so many of the hot new titles in the genre are of such a complicated and delicate construction, that it's difficult to imagine young children being allowed to play with them, the way I did with the more simplistic lift-the-flap books of my youth. show less

I enjoyed listening to this book being read-aloud to me by my music teacher. The first thing I like about it is the plot. The story is designed to be read orally in order to scare the audience. The plot is extremely suspenseful and it builds up until the end. The story takes you through a haunted house. The second thing I liked was the illustrations. After moving through the haunted house, the last page jump-scares you with a pop-up illustration of a ghost. This pop-up picture paired with show more the reader screaming "BOO!" completes the book and leaves the audience scared and satisfied. The main idea of the book is to scare the reader/audience, which I think it successfully accomplished. show less

Most of the lift-the-flap books we bought for our toddler show some major wear and tear twenty years later, but this one is practically pristine, evidence of how few times we returned to it.

It's pretty dull for adults, with no story and a tenuous color theme. The images on the flaps all match the page color, though they are not things that are always that color -- like blue boots or a pink teapot -- but the images under the flaps do not match the color. There is no association between the show more image on the flap and the one below, especially since there are little wheels to rotate the hidden images. Ostensibly the rotation keeps the book interesting as a hidden bug won't necessarily be in the same place each time as you search for that peekaboo moment with it.

I just don't know why I'd want to find the dumb bug. I mean is this just baby's first introduction to Russian Roulette? "Oops! You found a bug. You lose. Now we have to put the book away. Sorryyyyy."

How did the author manage to turn this into a series with over two dozen books? show less

David Carter's "Bug" books are so stinkin' cute, is there anyone who doesn't love them? Halloween Bugs are wonderful, each hiding behind a flap "door" just waiting to trick or treat with you. At the end, a host of graveyard bugs pop-up and invite you to "smell our feet, give us something good to eat"! My favorite pop-up is the "Gotcha" spider popping out of the rusty iron door. Even the smallest kids love this book.