Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Walker Books (2010), 12 pages
ISBN
1406322466 / 9781406322460
Description
The creators of the Encyclopedia Prehistorica series offer a mythic look at the mysteries of the past with an entire pantheon of remarkable pop-ups. In this stunning volume, the incomparable team of Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda take us to Ra-Atum's land in Ancient Egypt; above the Grecian clouds to Zeus's Mount Olympus; up to Norse god Odin's frozen north; to the Far East, where the Jade Emperor sits in the heavens; into the wilds of Oceania, where Pele's volcanic rage simmers below the earth; and other lands and times, all rich with sacred myths and legends.
Pages
12
User reviews
LibraryThing member Valkitty
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I opened up Encyclopedia Mythologica’s Gods and Heroes popup book by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda. A giant popup Anubis was a delightful surprise on the first page.
The images in this work are bright, colorful, highly detailed and will easily engage
Scattered around the many large and small pop up images are bits of information about culture, history and religion from the cultures that the main images come from. Much of the information is accurate, though sparse. These are more tidbits to awaken a young person’s curiosity about these ancient cultures than to be a main educational source. If homeschooling young children, I think this would make an excellent foreshadowing activity before embarking on a unit about mythology.
One thing that truly brings a smile to my face is the wealth of tiny images in the smaller popups off to the side. Some of these are very multilayered, and just today, when scanning the book for a third time as I am writing this review, I discovered another image that I had not yet seen before. This book has the potential to reveal new secrets every time you look at it.
My favorite page by far, though I imagine given my user name, will hardly come as a surprise to my readers, is the page on the Norse Gods. The brilliant center piece is the god Thor, with hammer Mjöllnir raised overhead. The side panels reveal a colorful Asgard, Loki dressed in drag, and a Valkyrie racing into battle.
The only things that I can find room to be critical on this particular book is that the balance of localities is about what you find in school text books. A bit on Egypt, with a random panel on the Fertile Crescent thrown in, twice the amount of Greece/Rome as any other culture, Asian and New World mythologies all mashed together as if they are the same thing. What would be more interesting to me is to see a separate book for each culture, going into more detail. I would also be interested in seeing a works cited in the back, suggesting sources for children who would like to learn more. However, this is not to take away from my opinion that this book is a stunning display of paper art that will captivate young imaginations and delight people of all ages.
At this point I will extend a word of caution. Though the book is marked ages 5 and up, this is definitely a book to be read under adult supervision. The pop up images are exceptionally complex and detailed, and fold back amazingly easily, but they *must* be opened and closed SLOWLY, or else risk damaging the art. There are a wealth of hidden surprises in the smaller side panel popups, but these must be opened very carefully as they can get caught on the central popup.
Overall, this is a high quality book written with care to engage students in learning more about the past. It is whimsical, funny, and brief enough to not exhaust the attention span of younger children, and I think it is bound to become a reading time favorite.
The images in this work are bright, colorful, highly detailed and will easily engage
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the attention of readers young and old. When I described this book to my friends, many of my adult friends expressed an interest in seeing it. These images are also highly detailed and multilayered, and through several re-readings, I have seen different things within the illustrations and inside the popups.Scattered around the many large and small pop up images are bits of information about culture, history and religion from the cultures that the main images come from. Much of the information is accurate, though sparse. These are more tidbits to awaken a young person’s curiosity about these ancient cultures than to be a main educational source. If homeschooling young children, I think this would make an excellent foreshadowing activity before embarking on a unit about mythology.
One thing that truly brings a smile to my face is the wealth of tiny images in the smaller popups off to the side. Some of these are very multilayered, and just today, when scanning the book for a third time as I am writing this review, I discovered another image that I had not yet seen before. This book has the potential to reveal new secrets every time you look at it.
My favorite page by far, though I imagine given my user name, will hardly come as a surprise to my readers, is the page on the Norse Gods. The brilliant center piece is the god Thor, with hammer Mjöllnir raised overhead. The side panels reveal a colorful Asgard, Loki dressed in drag, and a Valkyrie racing into battle.
The only things that I can find room to be critical on this particular book is that the balance of localities is about what you find in school text books. A bit on Egypt, with a random panel on the Fertile Crescent thrown in, twice the amount of Greece/Rome as any other culture, Asian and New World mythologies all mashed together as if they are the same thing. What would be more interesting to me is to see a separate book for each culture, going into more detail. I would also be interested in seeing a works cited in the back, suggesting sources for children who would like to learn more. However, this is not to take away from my opinion that this book is a stunning display of paper art that will captivate young imaginations and delight people of all ages.
At this point I will extend a word of caution. Though the book is marked ages 5 and up, this is definitely a book to be read under adult supervision. The pop up images are exceptionally complex and detailed, and fold back amazingly easily, but they *must* be opened and closed SLOWLY, or else risk damaging the art. There are a wealth of hidden surprises in the smaller side panel popups, but these must be opened very carefully as they can get caught on the central popup.
Overall, this is a high quality book written with care to engage students in learning more about the past. It is whimsical, funny, and brief enough to not exhaust the attention span of younger children, and I think it is bound to become a reading time favorite.
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LibraryThing member bkwurm
I simply don't have the words to express how amazing and beautiful this pop-up book is. There are only 6 spreads, but the beauty and information contained in each spread is enough to keep a reader fascinated for hours. Each page has not only the main pop-up art, but four to six smaller pop-up
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stories. The craftsmanship is incredible, and I plan to display this book not with my other children's books, but on the shelf with my favorite art books. Reinhart and Sabuda's "Gods and Heroes" is without question an incredible work of art. Show Less
LibraryThing member rsochu1
I absolutely love this book for a few reasons. First, being the amazingly intricate pop-ups! I have never seen a pop-up book like this, it's so engaging. Secondly, I like the topic and plot of the book. The author was able to take a large amount of information about myths and legends and break it
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down and organize it into small easy to comprehend portions. The big idea of this book is to teach the reader about ancient myths and legends while entertaining them with beautiful pop-up illustrations. Show Less
LibraryThing member ForeverMasterless
You know those magical pop-up books you see in movies sometimes? The ones that are so elaborate and complex that they couldn’t possibly exist in real life? Yeah, well, so much for that. Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda have created nothing short of magic with this three-book mythology-themed
If you plan on getting one of these for your kid, maybe you should think twice if he/she is very young. The pop-ups are large and elaborate and, as it goes, more delicate than you may be used to. A rambunctious child could easily bend the paper which could possibly cause some of the pop-ups to fail to fold back in properly, causing even more damage. For example, there’s a mansion pop-up in the Fairies volume that will fail to fold back in if a paper tab is resting on the wrong side of another tab (they are not glued or attached in any way and it’s easy to bump it and move it to the wrong side). This happened when my girlfriend and I were looking at the book for the first time and, upon noticing that the pop-up wasn’t folding back in properly, we started examining it. It took probably five minutes to figure out what was wrong. That’s how intricate the designs of these things are. You have been warned.
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set. Each page has one large, impressive, center-piece pop-up that often extends far beyond the boundaries of the book. In addition to that there are little flaps on every page that lead to their own mini-pop-ups as well as some different stuff, such as a story that flips through the pages when you pull a tab (Gods & Heroes). If you plan on getting one of these for your kid, maybe you should think twice if he/she is very young. The pop-ups are large and elaborate and, as it goes, more delicate than you may be used to. A rambunctious child could easily bend the paper which could possibly cause some of the pop-ups to fail to fold back in properly, causing even more damage. For example, there’s a mansion pop-up in the Fairies volume that will fail to fold back in if a paper tab is resting on the wrong side of another tab (they are not glued or attached in any way and it’s easy to bump it and move it to the wrong side). This happened when my girlfriend and I were looking at the book for the first time and, upon noticing that the pop-up wasn’t folding back in properly, we started examining it. It took probably five minutes to figure out what was wrong. That’s how intricate the designs of these things are. You have been warned.
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Awards
Parents' Choice Book Award (2011)
Kids' Book Choice Awards (Finalist — 2011)
Children's Favorites Awards (Finalist — 2011)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
12 p.; 9.76 inches