Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Robert Sabuda

Welcome back to my weekly edition of Sabuda Saturdays! Miss the first, Wonderful Wizard of Oz? This week, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a pop-up adaptation of Lewis Carroll's original tale. After Wizard of Oz, I fell in love. But after Alice, I was hooked for life!


The pop-ups themselves are in the style of original illustrator John Tenniel. This book contains six large pop-ups including Alice running after the White Rabbit, the Tea Party with the Mad Hatter and Alice playing croquet. It also features numberous side panels on each page which contain other smaller pop-ups. (see last photo of Alice's head)


Everything about this book is magical to me. The colours used, the movement of the pop-ups and their complexity, the touches of coloured foil, the sense of surrealness that comes from turning the pages. The story is one that everyone recognises and knows something about, and the pop-ups and illustrations bring this story to life.


And it all seems to culminate in the work of papercraft genius that is the final large pop-up of the book, Alice's fight with the pack of cards. I was in awe of it the first time I saw this pop-up and it still impresses me.

Here is an example of one of the smaller pop-ups enclosed in the side flaps. As the page is turned either way, Alice's neck grows larger or smaller. There are no small details in this book, everything is just right and believable.

Stay tuned for more Sabuda Saturdays...