KidsPage || Events & Classes ||
Home |
|
|
|
EDUCATOR GUIDE Biography || Pop-up History || Activities || Web Connections || Bibliography BIOGRAPHYOne day in a dentist's waiting room, a little boy's mother suggested he read some books to keep his mind off the dreaded drill. Those books turned out to be pop-ups, and their discovery marked the beginning of Robert Sabuda's passion for movable books.
Robert Sabuda was born in 1965 and grew up in Pinckney, Michigan. He spent much of his time drawing, painting and creating artwork as a child, encouraged by his teachers and his family. His father was a mason and carpenter who demonstrated the art of contructing a three-dimensional structure with meticulous precision. His mother brought home discarded file folders from Ford Motor Company, where she worked as a secretary. The folders were perfect for art projects, such as pop-up cards and books. Robert Sabuda's parents owned the first original Robert Sabuda pop-up book, created when he was 8 years old. While earning his B.F.A. in communications design from Pratt Institute, Robert Sabuda served as an intern for Dial Books for Young Readers. His chores included opening crates of original art from illustrators such as Barbara Cooney, Rosemary Wells and James Marshall. The experience guided him toward his career in children's book illustration and he realized his destiny was to be a picture book artist. Robert Sabuda's illustration debut came with the publication of The Fiddler's Son by Eugene Bradley Coco, published in 1988. He began his career in picture book art primarily as a linoleum block printmaker. Since the early books, however, he has varied his style and employed innovative media. Robert Sabuda works from his studio in Manhattan when he isn't travelling to oversee pop-up production or attending work-related conferences and appearances. Robert Sabuda never wants his books to be easily identifiable as his work, although the pop-ups are unmistakably his due to their complexity and perfection. He is widely regarded as the wizard of pop-up engineering. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up (2000) has been considered his masterpiece. Its linoleum block print medium adheres to the style of the original W.W. Denslow illustrations, yet the intense visual power of the pop-up is all Sabuda's. (Biographical information taken from the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature website.)POP-UP HISTORY Pop-up books are not new to the publishing world. The term usually means any type of book with movable parts. Pop-up books can be traced back to the 1200s, when Ramon Llull used layered circles to demonstrate astrological projections and explain math formulas. Anatomy texts were also created with movable images. These books were used as teaching tools for adults. Paper engineering is the term used to define the art of the pop-up book. In the nineteenth century, book publishers began producing books for children's entertainment. Pop-up books became popular with upper-class families and were very expensive. The 1970s saw a revival of pop-up books. This reemergence of the pop-up can be traced to the advertising and greeting card industries. Now, Robert Sabuda and other paper engineers have taken the pop-up art form to a new level. Sabuda's work as author, illustrator, and paper engineer has drawn readers into the art of the book and challenged them to examine the elements and explore the workings of the visuals in each creation. (Booklinks, June/July 2003) ACTIVITIES Use Robert Sabuda's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up as a springboard for creative activities within your curriculum. After students have had individual opportunities to experience and interact with the book, ask them to use it as inspiration for a variety of classroom projects. Here are some ideas: WEB CONNECTIONS Read an article from the March 2004 issue of Family Fun magazine that features instructions for recreating Sabuda's bat pop-up greeting card. Cyberbee's website gives suggestions for incorporating pop-ups into a language arts curriculum, as well as other Web links: Take a visual tour through the history of pop-up and movable books: Instructions for making simple pop-ups can be found on author Robert Sabuda's website: Author Mark Hiner's website contains an explanation of how pop-up books are produced: Check out this great flipbook on how a Robert Sabuda book is made: www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1534453.html BIBLIOGRAPHY Illustrated by Robert Sabuda: Baum, L. Frank Carroll, Lewis The Christmas Alphabet (1994) Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-up (1997) Moore, Clement Clarke The Movable Mother Goose (1999) Sabuda, Robert and Matthew Reinhart Sabuda, Robert and Matthew Reinhart The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Pop-up Celebration (1996) Williams, Nancy How to Make Pop-ups: Diehn, Gwen Hiner, Mark Valenta, Barbara Jackson, Paul Carter, David A. and James Diaz Chatani, Masahiro Articles: Ball, Sherry   
Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments about library events. |