Most of you will probably recognize Maurice Sendak as the author/illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are -- and of course other titles such a Chicken Soup With Rice, but yesterday I got a chance to see Mommy. I don't know what I expected -- but I did not expect a Halloween book. It's Sendak's first moves into pop-up and its a wonderful collaboration between Arthur Yorinks (a wonderful author himself) who developed the concept (I read that to mean thought up the story plot idea), Maurice Sendak who actually created the art for the book, and Matthew Reinhart who did the paper engineering. The book features a crawling baby (reminding me of the baby in Outside Over There. Each page is a breath taking pop-up of some Halloweenish type theme through which the baby crawls. In each room the baby cries "Mommy" -- and there is a flap to open and each time we are shown (in pop-up style) a goulish (but not frighteningly so) character - Frankenstein, a skeleton etc. Finally as you might have predicted -- his mommy does appear in the final flap.
The book was very intriguing and I am tempted to buy it -- but it is $25.00 and I never am certain how long a pop-up is going to survive real children reading it -- no matter how careful. One observation in that area -- except for opening the flap on each page this book is not a manipulative pop-up and that makes a hugh difference.
Interesting to me that did intrique me is that Matthew Reinhart did the paper engineering. I often see his name on books as the artist for books by Robert Sabuda -- Sabuda doing the paper engineering. Seems like whoever has the "bigger" name gets to claim top billing on the book -regardless of what the role is. At first I thought that strange and then realize that is the same way as the movies, and theater, etc.
But do find a book-store and take a look. It's worth the effort.
Sharron McElmeel
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