All About: #autoarchives

We've held onto this month's All About Transport blog post to bring you a selection of the Collection and Exhibition Team's favorite modes of transport for #autoarchives.  It is #ExploreArchives week afterall.  Don't forget to let us know your favorite mode of transport in children's books. 

Original artwork by Helen Craig for 'Angelina's Birthday'. HCr/01/04/04 Artwork © Helen Craig. Photography © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books

I love the red bike that Angelina gets for her birthday, the excitement of getting a shiny new bike is phenomenal, Helen Craig conveys that so well through her beautiful illustrations.  We gave our daughter a bike basket just like Angelina’s when she was 7 and decorated our garden in much the same way that Angelina did with streamers and balloons.

Sarah McGlynn – Touring Coordinator

Section about materials in the Ladybird Book 'How to Make: Flying Models Photography © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books

Spotting the difference between Ladybird books has become a habit of mine. There are just so many editions, so many similar titles and just so many books.  I had started to count editions of Ladybirds about motorcars to make this point.  I counted ten and then got distracted by a huge pile of ‘Tootles the Taxi’, before I finally realised how arbitrary such a count would be because I couldn’t decide when to draw the line.  Then I decided I wanted to write about Hovercrafts in Ladybird books before stumbling on this gem: ‘How to Make: Flying Models’. Ladybird have written about everything.  This book teaches us not only how to make the PERFECT paper aeroplane but how to make planes from wood – really committed crafting.  What this little task has made me realise is that people survived without the internet because they had Ladybird books.  The internet?  Please ask me about the Ladybird title ‘How to Internet Shop’ for #autoarchives

Danielle McAloon – Collections and 

Exhibition Assistant

Original artwork with annotations, by Barabara Jones for Timothy Tramcar, c. 1950. These illustrations show the campaign in favour of the trams, and a bus leaving poor Timothy in his wake. Photography © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books

I love the artwork by Barbara Jones for Timothy Tramcar. It was actually one of the first ever artworks I saw when starting work at Seven Stories, and it stuck with me ever since. The artwork in places is quite psychedelic, and I was really excited to get to work in a place that uncovered such intriguing books! Recently I researched it further for a blog post, and the history of it I still find quite fascinating, particularly the illustrator’s involvement in documenting the dramatic changes in post war life around the UK, and how this feeds in to the story.

Alison Fisher – Exhibition Curator

Draft material by Elisabeth Beresford for her series of Wombles Titles. Photography © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books. 

The Wombles are the perfect urban citizen. They keep to themselves, clean up rubbish, and have a strong sense of community. I love the fact that they form their lives around recycled material and objects, and are always having creative, if far-fetched, inventive ideas. In a story draft called ‘The Conservation Car’, the author Elisabeth Beresford describes how the Wombles come across a giant magnet and want to put it to use. It happens that fuel prices are too high for them to drive their car (a hotchpotch of castaway human objects) – so they attach the magnet to the front of it and get pulled along by an unwitting lorry. I’m sure they were the furriest hitchers the driver has ever had.

Charlie Shovlar – Career Development 

Module work placement student

Photographs from translated editions of 'The Little Train' illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. Editions include Japanese, Spanish and Afrikaans.  Photography © Seven Stories – The National Centre for Children’s Books.

I’m fascinated by the foreign editions of The Little Train book, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone in the 1973 which we’ve recently acquired.  Excuse the pun but there’s an intriguing story attached to the publication of The Little Train, which was written by Graham Greene and originally illustrated by Dorothy Craigie in 1946.  Seven Stories holds the original illustrations by both Craigie and Ardizzone and it is really interesting to see how they each chose to illustrate the same story, in their own different styles and media.  What I love about the foreign editions of the books is that not only has the text of the main story been translated as one would expect, but Ardizzone’s hand written text which is overlaid within his illustrations has also been translated e.g. in the labels on the map of the Little Train’s journey and in text written within speech bubbles.  Sometimes this has caused a practical problem for the translator / publisher so that in the Japanese, Spanish, Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Swedish editions of the book, you can clearly see where Ardizzone’s original text has been overwritten and hasn’t quite been disguised!  I also love comparing the text in all the different languages to see how the translator has coped with some of the more unusual words.  It’s particularly fun looking at the black ‘Stop – Boomp – Woosh…. Bump – Clang – Whee - Bang’ page and the very last ‘Puff, puff, puff’ page of the book.

Paula Wride – Collection Officer

All About: Mice

The Seven Stories Collection holds the entire archive of one particularly famous mouse, Angelina Ballerina. However, we have written so much about Angelina recently, we thought it would be nice to explore some of the many other mice we have in the store (purely literary mice, no real ones!). If you are feeling inspired to explore more Seven Stories mice, click here to see all our Angelina posts.

Draft material by Martin Waddell for The Great Green Mouse Disaster, illustrated by Phillipe Dupasquier (Andersen Press, 1981)

November's first mouse, or hoard of mice, is the fantastically imaginative book by Martin Waddell and Phillipe Dupasquier. The book is virtually wordless, and as each page unfolds, the viewer is presented with a cross section of a hotel. Turn the page again and the action has moved on slightly, as you follow the progress of the rampaging hoard of green mice scattering throughout the hotel, causing chaos!

The archival material we hold runs to one, reasonably large, A4 file, full of Waddell's plans and notes for how the book should work. It being a particularly unusual book, I was very curious to work out how someone would go about planning it. It turns out that Waddell had some fairly concrete ideas about how he would like the book to look, and created a detailed 'story' for each characters progression on each page. The book is full of some brilliant detail, and it would take anyone a very long time to really find every different element. At the end of the book, there is even a list of things that Waddell thinks the reader might not have noticed!

Below is a sample of 'Story 4 The Mouseman', who is responsible for all this calamity:

'He is in the pursuit of the Mice and the Cat. In the cover illustration he will scoop up a milk bottle and this should be about his person as he runs. In 1 he is in the dining room, level 3, catching a glass of wine in mid air as it tumbled of the tray of the shocked waiter, who has been knocked aside by the jumping cat and cascading mice. Has has scooped a chicken from the table in passing, and is clambering over it - the table, not the chicken - to the stairs from 3 to 5.'

The Martin Waddell Collection, kindly donated by the author in 2008, consists of drafts and pre-publication material for 53 picture books and 63 educational books, including those published under the pseudonym Catherine Sefton. Several of the picture books have artwork represented elsewhere in the collection, such as Can't You Sleep Little Bear, illustrated by Barbara Firth, Tiny's Big Adventure, illustrated by John Lawrence and The Pig in the Pond, illustrated by Jill Barton. The collection also includes a series of notebooks and appointment diaries, and a series of printed books written by Waddell. 

Artwork by Emily Gravett for Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears, (Macmillan, 2007), inlaid with picture of title page of the Seven Stories copy of the book. Artwork © Emily Gravett, 2007

This artwork is an example of a much smaller collection than the one mentioned above, as it consists of just this one piece of artwork! These mice are final pieces of artwork used in the end papers, and  the 'Phagophobia (Fear of being eaten)' page. Another incredibly imaginative mouse led tale, this follows our hero, Little Mouse, on his journey through a book exploring all his different fears - entomophobia, clinophobia, acrophobia - amongst others. The pages are covered in little mouse 'nibble' marks, with several fold out pages of additional sumptuous detail, such as the 'Visitor's Map of the ISLE OF FRIGHTS'.

This collection may only contain one piece of artwork, executed in pencil, acrylic, and watercolour, but there is also an additional mouse illustration on the reverse of the card. The wider Seven Stories Collection actually does contain other work by Emily Gravett, also, by strange coincidence, of mice. Gravett kindly donated the piece above, and also her preliminary artwork, final pieces and prints of the final work for 'A was an apple pie' in Elizabeth Hammill's Over the Hills and Far Away. Some of this work is currently on display in Rhyme Around the World, at Seven Stories in Newcastle.

A Counting Book by Helen Craig, published by Aurum Press Ltd. c.1980

This month’s printed book featuring mice is A Counting Book by Helen Craig. Of course this tiny little mouse-filled book is by the illustrator of that other famous mouse Angelina Ballerina – oops!  We weren’t meant to mention her this month but this is too good an opportunity to showcase a less familiar book by Helen Craig, and one which was published before Angelina burst into the world in 1983.

This printed book comes from Pat Garrett’s Counting Book collection and is one of the smallest books in our collection, measuring just 5.5 cm square.  It comes in its own little slipcase which physically constrains the long concertina of pages.  Each double-page spread features colour illustrations of mice amusingly constructing the numbers 0 to10 out of a variety of handy objects including balloons, string, flowers, bubbles, and (as in the photo) a jigsaw puzzle ‘7’ which looks suspiciously like it’s made from pieces of cheese! The final 3 double spreads somehow accommodates 100 tiny mice!

Pat Garrett kindly donated her Counting Book collection to Seven Stories in 2006.  It consists of over 640 counting and number related books, mostly published between 1960 and 2000. Whilst this collection is made up mainly of picture books, it also includes books in a variety of formats such as board books, rag books, pop-up books, activity books, as well as three 19th Century mathematics text books and even friezes, an advent calendar, and plastic counting blocks.

To find out about Pat Garrett’s Alphabet book collection, check out our ‘Bird’ blog in May earlier this year by clicking here.

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

All About: Christmas Animals

Now it's the first of December, we can officially start celebrating Christmas here in the Seven Stories Collection. To start off our celebrations, we have a series of Christmas animals to show you, all taken from the material held in our store. This is the start of a new series, next year, on the first of each month we will be bringing you a post on a different feature animal! Leave a comment below with your favourite and we will see what we can do...

Original artwork by Helen Craig for Angelina Ice Skates, story by Katharine Holabird (Puffin, 1993)

Angelina uses her beautiful ballet skills to dance across the ice instead of a stage.

Illustration © Helen Craig

Original artwork by Helen Craig for Angelina's Christmas, story by Katharine Holabird (Puffin, 1985)

This is a heart warming story of Angelina bringing some Christmas cheer to Mr Bell, who has retired from being the village post man. To see more artwork from this book, and many other Angelina Ballerina titles, visit 'Twists and Tails - the Story of Angelina Ballerina' at the Seven Stories Visitor Centre until April 2015.

                                                                                             Illustration © Helen Craig

Original artwork for Tim Mouse and Father Christmas by Judy Brook (World’s Work Press, 1971)

Tim Mouse and children find a little old man with a long white beard lying in the snow.  They know nothing about Christmas, but the old man soon tells them all about Christmas Day, who he was, and how he got lost.  Tim, with the help of his wife, his children and his friends, comes to the rescue and makes sure that no one is disappointed on Christmas Day.

Illustration © Judy Brook's Estate

Original artwork for Tim Mouse and Father Christmas by Judy Brook (World's Work Press, 1971)                                                                                   Illustration © Judy Brook's Estate

Original artwork for Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr (William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1976) 

Christmas come to Mog’s household and Mog finds it a little unsettling. There are lots of new people and a walking tree!

                                                     Illustration ©Kerr-Kneale Productions Limited

Original artwork for Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr (William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1976) 

                                                           Illustration ©Kerr-Kneale Productions Limited

Original artwork for The Good Little Christmas Tree by Ursula Moray Williams (George G. Harrap, 1943)

Two parents bring home a Christmas tree for their children for Christmas day, but they cannot afford to decorate it with candles and sparkle. When they go to sleep, the Christmas tree goes on a journey to find decorations to delight the children on Christmas morning. He loses many of his needles, and only Santa Claus can help. 

                                                         Illustration © Ursula Moray Williams Estate

Original artwork for The Good Little Christmas Tree by Ursula Moray Williams (George G. Harrap, 1943)How many different animals can you spot in these pictures?

                                                                  Illustration © Ursula Moray Williams Estate

To find out more about any of the items shown in this post, visit the Seven Stories Catalogue. You can also call on 0191 495 2707 or email at collections@sevenstories.org.uk.

Ballet Stories with Katharine Holabird and Pam Knights

This weekend Seven Stories have been hosting several events with the Angelina Ballerina author Katharine Holabird. Katharine has been going in to schools, and hosting public events in our visitor centre, with lots of Angelina fans, especially many budding ballerinas.

One of the public events held in the Artists Attic this weekend.

On Monday evening we had a particularly special event, an audience with both Katharine Holabird, and Pam Knights, retired lecturer in English and American Literature at Durham University, and ballet book lover! 

Pam had spent time working with the Seven Stories archive to uncover the story it tells about children's books on ballet, and gave a fascinating and funny talk about the treasures she found. Starting with the Ballet Shoes books by Noel Streatfeild and illustrated by Ruth Gervis, and touching on the Lorna Hill's Sadlers Wells series, right up to the present day phenomenon that is Angelina Ballerina.

An example Pam used in her talk on ballet stories. This is an unpublished illustration created for Ballet Shoes, which Pam used to compare with other, published, portrayals of Posy in the book. Created in around 1936, this is one of the older artworks in the Seven Stories collection.

Katharine then gave a fascinating talk on her inspiration and drive to write the Angelina series. She gave additional insight in to her early love of ballet, and how the books were inspired not just by seeing her children enjoy it, but her childhood creative play, and visiting the ballet in Chicago with her grandmother.

Katharine Holabird speaking at the event.

The event was chaired by Sarah Lawrance, Collection Director, who took questions from the audience. Pam and Katharine answered questions on the roles of boys in ballet, and the importance of showing the hard work and determination it takes to be a dancer, but also that the stories must still be fun!

Katharine, Pam and Sarah in conversation.

Accompanying the event, we took a display of archival material that Pam had explored, including some of Helen Craig's beautiful artwork for their latest book Angelina's Big City Ballet, which has left us all desperate to visit New York (aka the Big Cheese).

Lindsey Gibson, Seven Stories conservator, discussing the archive with guests at the event.

Twists and Tails, the Story of Angelina Ballerina is on display at the Seven Stories visitor centre until April 2015.

If you want to find out more about this collection, or about any other of our archives then 
email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk
phone: 01914952707 
visit: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection 

Interview with Angelina Ballerina Illustrator, Helen Craig

The third and final part in our Angelina Ballerina series, linked to the 'Twist and Tails - the Story of Angelina Ballerina' exhibition is this interview with Helen Craig.

Helen Craig showing Kris McKie, Seven Stories Archivist works from her Angelina Ballerina archive.

This interview was part of the Seven Stories Picturebooks in Progress project, which you can find out about elsewhere on this blog. It was conducted by Martin Salisbury, Professor of Illustration and Course Leader of the MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University. It details Helen's creative process, where the idea for the character's came from, and show's Helen discussing in her own words the journey of Angelina Ballerina.

If you would like to visit the exhibition, it will be on display from Saturday 19th July until April 2015 at Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books. Click here to find out details about visiting the Centre.

If you'd like to find out more about the Helen Craig archive or would like to arrange a research visit to the Seven Stories Collection then
email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk, phone: 01914952707 or visit: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection.

Interested in other posts about Storylab Gallery at Seven Stories? Click here or here.

Angelina Ballerina books are now published by Puffin Books and are available for sale from the Seven Stories Bookshop.

To find out more about Martin Salisbury, and the Illustration course at Anglia Rusking, click here.

Installing Angelina

Welcome to the Storylab Gallery and the exhibition 'Twists and Tails - The Story of Angelina Ballerina'.  My name is Sarah McGlynn, and I'm the new Exhibitions Assistant, newest member of the Collections Team. I was excited to get started on the installation of this exhibition, we had been working on it since before I arrived in May and now the date had arrived. 

For three days last week most of the Collections Team were involved in the hanging of this exhibition.  On Monday, after dismantling and packing the Picturebook in Progress exhibition we then prepared the gallery by filling in holes and repainting the walls so that the space looked brand new again. Hanging exhibitions is best done methodically and the team worked closely according to our schedules, we did invite some extra helpers but they remained firmly seated on the sofa.

I spent Tuesday customising a large mirror and transforming it into what would hopefully become the centrepiece of  every little mouse's experience of visiting the exhibition.  Due to the delicate nature of the artwork, we have to keep light levels at 50 LUX; this meant that the photopoint, which has recently become a prerequisite for exhibitions, had to be placed well away from any original artworks.  We decided to have the mirror as a central part of this area so that visitors could dress up, see themselves in the mirror and then have their photo taken in front of the Angelina wall graphics. 

The original artwork and correspondence from Helen Craig and Katherine Holabird had been framed and was ready to be mirror plated before installation could take place.  Whilst mirror plating, we were able to take the measurements of the frames and prepare to make the calculations required for hanging. The exhibition had been carefully curated in advance and the layout went according to plan, using some double hanging, there would be exactly the right amount of wallspace for the works chosen. 

At the same time as we were hanging the artworks, Lindsey, the Seven Stories conservator, was carefully placing objects in the display cases on mounts specifically made from archival mount board. 

Simultaneously the graphics both large and small were being sited and fixed to the walls.  The original artwork is very beautiful, tiny and detailed so we used large graphics to complement the artwork and give Angelina a presence in the room from a distance.

With the addition of pink labels crediting the artwork, a sprinkling of pink stars, generous piles of Angelina picture books and drawing activities, a plain room had been transformed into a delightful space filled with gems of information and a truly wonderful place to spend time.

If you would like to visit the exhibition, it will be on display from Saturday 19th July until April 2015 at Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books. Click here to find out details about visiting the Centre.

If you'd like to find out more about the Helen Craig archive or would like to arrange a research visit to the Seven Stories Collection then
email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk, phone: 01914952707 or visit: http://www.sevenstories.org.uk/collection.

Interested in other posts about Storylab Gallery at Seven Stories? Click here or here.

Angelina Ballerina books are now published by Puffin Books and are available for sale from the Seven Stories Bookshop.

The making of 'Twists and Tails - The Story of Angelina Ballerina'

When Helen Craig and Katharine Holabird donated their archives of work for the Angelina Ballerina series, the exhibition team wanted to put the material on display as quickly as possible. Not only does the archive represent one of the most popular children's series of the past thirty years, but the level of detail available from both sides of the page is wonderful.

Kris (Seven Stories Archivist) and I (Alison, Curator) identified three main themes visible in the archive and stories.

How to make an Angelina book

The first was 'How to make an Angelina book'. One of the most crucial parts of the archive, and Seven Stories mission, is to make visible the process of creating a book. This material gives us the chance to show the long development that goes in to creating each book; showing the involvement of not just author and illustrator, but editor too. 

Section of draft for Angelina and the Princess, written by Katharine Holabird with comments from Helen Craig, c.1983

Kris and I worked through all the books represented in the collection, and chose Angelina and the Princess as the most visual example of this process. The second book in the series, published in 1984, it was written while the concepts behind Angelina and the world of Mouseland were still being developed. There is also a complete run of preparatory work, in which alterations to the story are clearly visible. What we found most intriguing was the evolution of the original story from Angelina performing for 'The Duchess of Mouseberry', to performing for the Princess. The material on display allows the viewer to track the changes made through the whole process. 

To represent the illustration side, we chose to focus on one particular scene from the book - the double page spread of Angelina performing for the Princess. For this there were many rough illustrations created by Helen Craig, complete with notes to herself about composition. It is an interesting exercise to decipher which elements have changed between each draft, and work out which came first.

Early rough for final double page spread by Helen Craig, for Angelina and the Princess, written by Katharine Holabird (Aurum Press, 1984)

Colour rough for final double page spread by Helen Craig, for Angelina and the Princess, written by Katharine Holabird (Aurum Press, 1984)

Angelina's Journey

The second theme most apparent in the archive is that of Angelina's journey, both within the books, but also from initial picture book to global star.

The archive holds the very first illustrations and manuscript created by Helen and Katharine. Although different to the final version, these show the very beginnings of Angelina, and are on display alongside each other. Showing Angelina's journey within the books led us to choosing some of our favourite Angelina moments, including when she is preparing to go to her first ballet lesson, performs for royalty, and when she meets her new baby sister for the first time. We also have on show an illustration from the (as yet unpublished) latest book in the series Angelina's Big City Ballet, of Angelina and her family arriving in the Big Cheese (aka New York).

Small section of the first draft, which later became Angelina Ballerina. Katharine Holabird, 1982.

The set of stand up illustrations Helen Craig sent to Katharine Holabird, as her idea's for 'Primrose', c. 1982

We also follow Angelina's journey to international fame. The archive contains material from Katharine and Helen's initial and ongoing discussions with HiT entertainment, who hold the licence for the Angelina Ballerina brand. This correspondence often shows the frustrations of allowing other people to work on a character the creators care deeply about. There is also an opportunity to display material from the many different spin-off's, such as the English National Ballet adaptation, much of the merchandise produced over 30 years, and examples of the two television animations.

A sample of some of the Angelina Ballerina merchandise, these were created in 2002 for HIT Entertainment

Mouseland

Probably the most fun we had was choosing content for this section. The world Angelina inhabits is called 'Mouseland', and comes set with certain rules. It was wonderful to explore this within the illustrations and Helen's rough work, uncovering hitherto unseen floorplans of Angelina's home, and choosing pieces which help to show the detailed world the mice inhabit.

Small section of 'Angelina's House', by Helen Craig, 1982

Cross section of a house in Mouseland, with Angelina peering through the window. Final illustration by Helen Craig, for Angelina's Christmas, written by Katharine Holabird (Aurum Press, 1985)

If you would like to visit the exhibition, it will be on display from Saturday 19th July 2014 until April 2015, at Seven Stories, National Centre for Children's Books. Click here to find out more details about visiting the centre.

If you would like to book a visit to research the archives within our collection store, click here for further details.

Interested in other posts about the Storylab Gallery at Seven Stories? Click here or here.

Angelina Ballerina is now published by Puffin Books, and are available for sale from the Seven Stories bookshop, one of the largest independent children's bookshops in the UK.

All about pop-up books! (2 of 2)

In this post our guest blogger on pop-up books, Lena Kleine Bornhorst, looks through the Seven Stories Collection and picks out examples of pop-ups featuring some very well known children's characters:

Winnie the Pooh, Noddy, Peter Rabbit, Paddington Bear and The Tiger who Came to Tea are all well-known children’s book characters who have featured in pop-up books. Popular figures or famous stories have often been published in pop-up editions – with varying results!  Pop-up books can be used to raise the popularity of a book or character. They can be used as a merchandising product (like soft toys or board games) and they’re a clever way for publishers to reuse already existent material.

The reuse of established characters in pop-up books is not a new concept: as we saw in the last post, one of the key partnerships in the history of pop-up books was that between US publisher Blue Ribbon and the Walt Disney Company in the 1930s. Pop-up books are a convenient medium to bring film characters or themes into a book version. The movement in the pages and the dynamics can fill the gap between a film and an ordinary book: like a film in a book format.

However, pop-up books with well-known characters shouldn't only be seen as merchandising products. The results are very often quite exciting and it’s interesting how diverse the pop-up editions can be. We can take a look at an example from the Seven Stories Collection: three Thomas the Tank Engine pop-up books produced in the 1990s.

Thomas’s Party Pop-up (Heinemann, 1999) tells in five double-pages a short story about Thomas Birthday Party. The paper engineering is kept very simple and the technique of the pop-ups is always the same. The back of the book is located at the top. Each double-page contains a 90 degree pop-up-element which unfolds when you held the book in a 90 degree angle.

Thomas's Big Railway Pop-up Book (Heinemann, 1992) features seven double-page spreads about seven adventures had by Thomas and his friends throughout a week.  In contrast to Thomas’s Party Pop-up, this book includes different and complex paper engineering. All the included pop-up elements are 180 degree pop-ups, which work when the book is completely open. The reader is encouraged to turn the book in different directions to see all of the pop-up elements and there are many interactive pull-tabs. Two of the interactive elements feature string, which is used to demonstrate rope – the text says: “On Wednesday James runs away. Edward and an Inspector chase him and stop him with a rope.” The other string is integrated in a pull-tab, which makes it possible to lift the Tank Engine after an accident.

Spread from Thomas's Big Railway Pop-up Book (Heinemann, 1992)

Thomas’s Amazing Pop-Up Train Set Book (Heinemann, 1995) contains only four double pages, but the format has a bigger size than the other two books. This book contains detailed 180 degree pop-ups and there are many interactive elements – in particular, a detachable paper engineered Tank Engine, which can use for a free play with the book.  The book is the base for the play as it contains railway lines, over which the Tank Engine can find the way (via a house and over a bridge) through the book. The story is told on little story-stops on every page: Thomas has to deliver a parcel in time, but is too late so he follows further story-stops which bring him back through the book till he catches a paper engineered helicopter which brings the parcel safe to his owner. The story and the interactive part with the detachable Tank Engine are cleverly combined and show another aspect of how pop-up elements can be used.

Spread from Thomas’s Amazing Pop-Up Train Set Book (Heinemann, 1995)

The Thomas the Tank Engine examples show how different paper engineering can look and how different the functions of pop-up books can be. If pop-up books are cleverly made, they can make a story more alive and intensive. Interactive elements let the reader be part of the story and join in.

Other examples of innovative pop-ups featuring well-known characters include the Winnie-the-Pooh Pop-up Theatre Book (Methuen, 1992), for which the paper engineering was done by Helen Balmer and Jose R. Seminario.  The book contains five double pages and every right side is covered by a big flap which can be lifted with a small ribbon. The enfolded paper engineering shows a scene of the story. With the included character puppets these scenes can be used for a free theatre play and pull-flaps bring movement to the scene.

Spread from Winnie-the-Pooh Pop-up Theatre Book (Methuen, 1992)

The amount of work required to make a pop-up book can be seen in the archive at Seven Stories. For example, Angelina Ballerina illustrator, Helen Craig’s collection includes extensive material from two Angelina pop-up books. This material shows the entire process of the development of a pop-up-book, in this case Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up and Play Musical Theatre (Penguin, 2008) and Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up Dancing School (Puffin, 2007). Looking at this archive, we can see that the production of a pop-up-book is very different to that of a normal book.

Dummy book of Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up and Play Musical Theatre (Penguin, 2008) ©  Helen Craig and Katharine Holabird

Dummy book of Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up and Play Musical Theatre (Penguin, 2008) ©  Helen Craig

The Angelina Ballerina material shows how important and precise the arrangements between the illustrator and the paper engineer must be. Helen Craig’s collection includes paper engineering dummies of different stages, original illustrations, work plans about necessary illustration parts, letters, emails and many designs and construction sheets with handwritten comments by Helen and paper engineers Ian Smith and Maggie Bateson. In their correspondence they talk about things such as the right sizes of the illustrations, so that they fit perfectly on a particular flap. In one email exchange they speak about the size of miniature coat hangers so that the press-out clothes hold perfectly on the small clothes rail!

Preliminary drawings for Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up Dancing School (Puffin, 2007) ©  Helen Craig

The dummies seem to be a very important resource for this process. They make it understandable for the illustrator which areas can be seen at the end and which illustrations or added decorations are needed, so that at the end a wonderful pop-up book can be published.

Part of early dummy book of Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up Dancing School (Puffin, 2007) 

Part of later dummy book of Angelina Ballerina’s Pop-up Dancing School (Puffin, 2007) 

The creation of pop-up books and bringing well-known characters into this new format demands a lot of creativity and knowledge. A successful pop-up-book that can offer something interesting and different to a traditional book is much more than a simple reuse of existing characters and illustrations. It can be an exciting new artwork. Pop-up books provide multifarious opportunities to create something special and new with already well-known characters and stories.

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, the Helen Craig archive, or the pop-up (and other!) books we hold, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 01914952707.