Pop-up Christmas books by Robert Sabuda

To get into the spirit of the season we currently have a Christmas related display in the Special Collections reading room on the 2nd floor of the Central Library. On display until the end of December are two pop-up Christmas books by Robert Sabuda.

Robert Sabuda has interpreted many classic children’s books including Peter Pan, the Wizard of Oz and the Little Mermaid in his renowned intricate pop-up style.

First is his advent calendar-style alphabet, where small objects like a ribbon-decorated gift spring from behind paper ‘doors’.

Robert Sabuda. The Christmas alphabet. New York : Orchard, 1994.

The second book is inspired by the traditional Christmas song the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’, and includes pop-up illustrations for each of the twelve days, including the six geese in a snowy landscape, and eight maids carrying milking pails.

Robert Sabuda. The 12 days of Christmas: a pop-up celebration. New York, N.Y. : Little Simon/Simon & Schuster Children's Pub., 1996.

The editions on display are part of our heritage children’s collection, which aims to be a representation of what children in New Zealand have read over the years. The collection was begun in the 1970s with a donation from the Colson family, and was created by a succession of children’s librarians, before coming into Sir George Grey Special Collections in 1996.

For those not close to the Central Library, if you browse Auckland Libraries’ holdings of titles by Robert Sabuda, you’ll see that we have multiple copies of both of these books as well as many of his other pop-up books all around our community libraries for you to enjoy.

Author: Angeline Chirnside, Sir George Grey Special Collections