Trail: Paper Poetry Pop-Up (Hardcover)
Not my favorite pop-up book. Maybe it's simple sophistication was lost on me, but honestly - there are much better pop-up books out there. I love pop-up books and I love poetry, but in this book, neither is remarkable. The pop-ups are quite intricate - there are five total - done entirely in stiff white card stock and thus, the effect is almost non-existent. The poem is printed in silver ink so light, you might miss it if you didn't know it was there. What was probably intended to be quietly understated simply becomes mute and washed away.

As noted, the pop-ups ARE quite intricate. However, they need some COLOR to POP! They are intended to illustrate the poem, but white pop-ups don't illustrate "green mossy banks" "evening sunset(s)," or "lily pond(s)!" The poem revolves around nature and feels uninspired and bland. This book is obviously the work of a serious pop-up artist. Unfortunately, it misses its mark. ( )

This is an amazingly intricate book. The pages are all white with a little bit of silver. In order to read the poems, the reader must turn a wheel on each page. The pop-up pieces are beautiful! ( )

This extraordinary children's book showcases the growing sophistication of paper architecture (elaborate pop-ups), the best known practitioner of which is probably "paper engineer," Robert Sabuda. Unlike Sabuda's work (colourful castles and dinosaurs...), this book is essentially monochromatic: white, with a silvery snail trail throughout. Pelham uses some metallic paper and clear plastic as well. Each two-page spread is an intricate three-dimensional microsystem: a lily pond, a mossy bank, a hollow log filled with leaves and arachnids...

The premise is simple: a snail's journey through nature. Extraordinary landscapes explode from the pages - dragonflies, spiders, flowers, birds, bracket fungi, butterflies, toadstools, paw prints, and of course, the snail - This is the kind of combined ingenuity and craftsmanship that gave us marionettes, automata, and paper airplane engineering.

The poetry is less inspired, but appropriate for children. It focuses on the infinite number of choices open to the snail as it creeps through forests and glades, leaving behind a mazy trail of silver as it goes up, down, around, and through the landscape.

Children and adults will be equally delighted. ( )