cover image America’s National Parks: A Pop-Up Book

America’s National Parks: A Pop-Up Book

Don Compton, illus. by Dave Ember, paper engineering by Bruce Foster. W.W. West (Farcountry Press, dist.), $34.95 (10p) ISBN 978-0-9758960-3-7

A three-dimensional tour of America’s national parks unfolds in this well-designed pop-up book. Ember’s arresting artwork is an exercise in nostalgia, rendered in the style of vintage WPA posters. Six seamless pop-ups give a sense of topography to the rusty buttes of the Grand Canyon, the humid swampland of the Everglades, and the icy blue Smoky Mountains, among other locales. Abundant information about each park is integrated via mini booklets, while tabs, moving parts, and mini pop-ups offer add additional layers and texture. Detailed text spreads describe other parks and include reproductions of WPA posters. Quotations from authors, historians, and political figures dot the pages, while Compton’s prose underscores the majesty of these locations: “Touring Death Valley National Park is far more than hiking across sand dunes. There are miles of otherworldly salt flats, golden-hued and rainbow-colored canyons... and a spring-fed waterfall flowing year-round—in a desert.” All ages. (Apr.)