Photograph by Todd Tankersley View Slideshow 
The toughest part of designing a pop-up book isn't getting the 3-D figures to pop open — it's getting the damn things to fold back down again as the book is closed. That's why Robert Sabuda, the reigning king of the pop-up jungle, is known not just as an artist but also as a formidable engineer. Sabuda and his collaborator, Matthew Reinhart, routinely test the limits of folded paper, concocting ever more complex arm-and-pivot systems and automated flipbooks to dazzle an underage audience that probably doesn't even appreciate the technical marvels they hold. The duo's latest, Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Mega-Beasts, packs more than 35 full-size "pops" into its 12 overstuffed pages, not to mention 26 internal flaps. Not surprisingly, creating prickly saber-toothed tiger claws, in-your-face woolly mammoth tusks, and realistically flapping quetzalcoatlus wings that unfold and then seamlessly retract wasn't easy. "I listen to the paper," Sabuda says. "I open and close it slowly and say, 'Do you hear a click? I have to figure out where that click is coming from!'" He disdains the crude pull tabs, arrows, and spinning wheels found in standard pop-up books. "We want everything to happen as you open the page or the flap."
Folding Secrets
1 The saber-toothed tiger expands according to its natural movement. "Children's books should be as honest as possible," Sabuda explains.
2 Shut, stalactites nest in alternating layers with the skull-strewn floor. Open, the multiple layers create an illusion of depth.
__3 __Tiger cubs scoot out from behind Mom's neck via a sideways V-fold.
4 Sabuda and Reinhart often insert multiple mini-books within their books. Under this second flap, an elephant and tiger sink into a tar pit while the elephant's leg rises in a separate timed motion.
__5 __The V-fold behind the hyeanodon is the engine behind most pop-ups. A V-fold riser, a plane parallel to the V-fold, allows the figure's mouth to gnash on a bone.
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