by Gary Greenbergillustrated by Balvis Rubess
pop-ups by Matthew Reinhart
(New York: Rob Weisbach Books, 1999)
Hardcover, 22 Pages, Pop-Up
ABCD Rating: BACKLIST
All your worst nightmares made frighteningly, hilariously real…
From the Cover: Fear of heights, fear of spiders, fear of flying, fear of death—everyone is afraid of something. And these pop-ups place you in the hot seat, whether it’s the dentist’s chair as the drill come spinning toward you; the edge of a skyscraper whose sheer face plummets hundreds of feet to the sidewalk below; or the window seat of a plane as the oxygen mask deploys, your drink spills, and the horizon shifts to an angle that is suddenly, terribly wrong. … Brought to life by outrageously macabre artwork and startlingly innovative pop-ups, The Pop-Up Book of Phobias is an engineering marvel and cult classic in the making—the perfect gift for every neurotic in your life.
My Review: I first came across this book (and its companion The Pop-Up Book of Nightmares (review to follow)) on the wonderful blog Judge a Book by its Cover. (I’ve mentioned Maughta’s blog here before, but it deserves mentioning again) Anyway, I have seen these books before, but never picked them up … at least not that I can remember. Perhaps I have blocked the experience from my memory? So I went straight to my local library’s website, was thrilled to see that they had them (though oddly, they did not carry The Pop-Up Book of Sex … I’ll let you Google that one … this is (ostensibly) a family blog) and so requested them immediately.
When I went to pick them up, the librarian laughed and said “Oh, we were having fun laughing over these when they came in. They’re great!” And really, what more can I say about this book then that? They really are great and actually are quit good and inducing a small amount of anxiety. My wife won’t even look at them and my pulse speeds up ever so slightly on the coulrophobia page.
The pop-ups are absolutely brilliant and the artwork is wonderful, and I think what is most amazing here is that no one thought of doing this before 1999. It is an ingenious idea and is a book that I recommend you find as soon as you can, you’ll be amazed what some strategically placed paper coming up out of a book at you can do.
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