Everyone loves a good pop-up book!

I will admit it, I am an adult pop-up book fanatic. To me, the fantastic element of a three-dimensional art piece combined with a story line beats out all other forms of entertainment. Here are a few of my personal favorites!

Matthew Reinhart is by far my favorite paper engineer (the politically correct term for a pop-up book artist.) Every book that he puts out amazes me to a point that is mostly unriveled by other books in the genre. My two favorites, The Jungle Book: A Pop-Up Adventure and the latest installment of the Encyclopedia Mythologica, Fairies and Magical Creatures both perfectly showcase the talent of Reinhart and his partner Robert Sabuda: each page leaves you with your jaw on the floor, saying to yourself, "I didn't know that you could even do that with paper!"

For information on what happens in their studio, check out their blog at http://popupstudionyc.blogspot.com/

Trail:Paper Poetry by David Pelham is a children's pop-up book for adults. It is an all-white and silver book that is not only stunning visually, the rotating poetry wheels, that perfectly accent the theme of continuation and rebirth, are profound.

If you're interested in intricate and informational pop-up books, you should also check out David Pelham's Dimensional Man: A Life-Size Three Dimensional Study of the Human Body!

Definitely not a pop-up book for kids, The Pop-up Book of Phobias by Gary Greenberg and Balvis Rubess details ten common phobias with illustrations that are as ironic as they are lurid. With a bit of a weird sense of humor, I find that this one makes a really excellent coffee table book for your guests to peruse.

Also, if you enjoy odd and creepy things, the author and illustrator of The Pop-up Book of Phobias teamed up with Matthew Reinhart to produce The Pop-up Book of Nightmares to read as you fall asleep!

~Whitney