Pop Goes the Book!

And I thought they were a 20th century invention ...

After writing about paper engineers Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, I just had to fill the readers in on the history of movable books.

Star Mag, 22nd October 2006.

A long, heavy history

TOTS TO TEENS
By DAPHNE LEE

I LEARNT a lot about movable books when I was writing my article about paper engineers Robert Sabuda and Michael Reinhart.   

I’d thought that this art had developed only recently, but in fact, movable books have been around since the 13th century. Of course, early mechanisms were nowhere near as complex as they are now. 

At first, the movable parts were simply volvelles (two or more concentric revolving discs). Ramon Llull, a mystic and poet from Catalan was one of the first to use them. And no, he was not a picture book illustrator. Rather, he used volvelles to illustrate his ideas about philosophy. 

Volvelles continued to be used until the 18th century to illustrate a variety of subjects, from astronomy and mathematics to navigation and medicine. Anatomy textbooks also used lift-the-flap mechanisms to show the various parts of the body.

Movable books were not produced for children until the early 18th century. Robert Sayer was the first to publish such a book in 1765. Called Harlequinade, it was a lift-the-flap book inspired by and featuring the pantomime theatre character Harlequin. 

These days, movable books are produced mainly for children, or rather with children in mind. 

However, after seeing the ruin of a couple of these books in the eager-beaver hands of kids, I have learnt my lesson and never leave lift-the-flap, pull-the-tab, pop-up and other movable books with my over-enthusiastic, heavy-handed and curious little beasties. 

These books are very pricey and they’re not easy to mend so I definitely recommend that kids be allowed to handle them only under supervision. If they want to see how a mechanism works, there’s actually a cheaper way to satisfy their curiosity: You can help them make their own simple movable books. There are books that show you how, and websites too. 

Try Sabuda’s guide at robertsabuda.com/ popmakesimple.asp for starters. Or check out familycrafts.about. com/od/homemadebooks/ – it lists sites which show you how to make all kinds of movable books.