The Dragon and the Knight

What a lovely disappointment.

This was book was purposely bought for some oooo and aaaaa pre-bed bedtime reading and although it had its generous ladling of oooo’s it missed out on the essential aaaaa’s.

Y’see a pop-up book must have two things, it must pop-up and it must be a book.

The Dragon and the Knight

Well yes it had plenty of the pop-up-ing but it lacked the necessaries in the book department.

This book is stunning to behold, it is a wonderful item, a work of art, a beautiful book of the pop-up fashion. From the outside it’s nothing special but the inside is a different matter as the pop-ups are just as beautiful an example of the pop-up art as it has been my pleasure to experience. The paper inside too is pretty terrific, it’s all parchment-like distressed and ancient, for the price you’ll be expected to pay it really is a fantastic book.

One could leave this on a coffee table and despite its intended audience being born of the latest millennium, I would venture that there would be few adults capable of not having a little delve into its 3D joys. I love it, for a piece of art it is just wonderful.

But as a book….. hmmmm

As a book it makes one enormous error…. one cannot read it, as unfortunately the pop-ups are attached to the page at various anchor points, these anchor points simply attach where text is written and as such one cannot read the text.

I tried, the first couple of pages I managed to put together a not too unconvincing appraisal of what was going on with the dragon and the, the, the ermmmmm. That was it, I had to squint, I had to guess and even with the greatest skill I could muster the story stuttered along, disbelief wasn’t suspended and I had to give up.

Sheesh, as an object of desire it is very desirable but as a book…. well as a book it needs either better text placement or a booklet containing the full script of the book.

Disappointing but lovely.