600 Black Spots: A Pop-up Book for Children of All Ages

by David A. Carter, David A. Carter (Illustrator)

Overview

Following the amazing success of One Red Dot and Blue 2, David Carter has done it again! He's back with 600 Black Spots, his most clever scavenger hunt pop-up yet. Readers can spend countless hours of fun searching for the black spots throughout the pages—but be careful! Tricks and surprises abound in this endlessly entertaining, keep-you-on-the-spot book!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416940920
Publisher:	Little Simon
Publication date:	09/25/2007
Series:	Classic Collectible Pop-Up Series
Pages:	20
Sales rank:	122,590
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

David A. Carter is a master paper engineer and creator of the Bugs series, which has sold more than 6 million copies. Also the author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed Color series, featuring One Red Dot, Blue 2, 600 Black Spots, Yellow Square, and White Noise, he lives in Auburn, California, with his wife and two daughters.

David A. Carter is a master paper engineer and creator of the Bugs series, which has sold more than 6 million copies. Also the author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed Color series, featuring One Red Dot, Blue 2, 600 Black Spots, Yellow Square, and White Noise, he lives in Auburn, California, with his wife and two daughters.

Editorial Reviews

…tour de force of paper engineering …Unlike its popular predecessors, One Red Dot (2004) and Blue 2 (2006), where readers also look for dots in different settings, it's not intended for those just learning to count. Nor is it appropriate for children without the dexterity to treat it kindly. Its pleasures aren't narrative but visual, and enhanced by an appreciation for the abstract.
—The New York Times

Joanna Rudge Long

When the cover of this book is opened, a spiraling fan pops up, comprised of 8 1/2" tall stiff paper strips, each with one black dot at the top. The text reads: "White grasses tip tap and 90 Black Spots." Next is a complicated construction of red, blue, yellow, and white piers displaying 60 more black spots. The following two pages show more fantastic structures and more spots in large and small sizes, but readers are warned not to count the dangling blue spot! One double-page spread offers four folded flaps which, when opened, reveal a wheel spiraling about on a black spot pinhead. Who can count the black spots on the next page, with its two pull-tabs pulling black spots through a series of cut-out holes with red, blue, yellow and black spots appearing and disappearing in both directions? Another pop-up makes a gentle rattling sound as black spots on strings bounce about on large yellow paper plates. There are several more pages of intriguing pop-ups, including one page with a high-rise construction carrying only one black spot. In the final pop-up, tall yellow projections rise from a white turtleback construction that itself rises from the center of the page, displaying 258 black spots. True, there is no story in this pop-up book, but the paper engineering is amazing and movable book lovers will want to get their hands on this book.

Children's Literature - Eleanor Heldrich

Gr 3 Up
Following on the heels of One Red Dot (2005) and Blue 2 (2006, both S & S), Carter presents another volume that is more like taking a walk through a modern-art gallery than perusing a traditional pop-up book. Each of the nine intricately designed abstract paper sculptures is a surprise and a delight: thinly cut blades of paper ("white grasses tip tap") fan out with a whoosh, shapes gracefully unfold, and circles dangle from threads, generating an energized sense of motion. The spreads challenge readers to find specific numbers of "Black Spots"; some are easy to locate, while others are quite imaginatively placed. Constructed from a few carefully chosen words, the brief text explodes from the pages in an echo of the artwork. Some of the phrases are straightforward ("Spontaneous forms entwine" is paired with a pop-up depicting various interconnected shapes), while others are a bit more elusive ("Blue Memphis arisin'" or "Fauve kaboom"). While the book's delicate format makes it a challenge to circulate, this eye-teaser is a mesmerizing choice for library displays and/or programs and art classrooms.
—Joy FleishhackerCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Carter's third set of large-scale, knock-your-socks-off pop-up abstracts (following One Red Dot, 2005, and Blue 2, 2006) takes a quick tour through modern art, celebrating jazz and visual spontaneity, as well as paying specific tribute to Mondrian and the Fauves. Each pop-up is festooned with black dots-some printed, others glued on or suspended on bits of thread-and for the less compulsive counters in his audience, the author mercifully supplies a total in each of his appropriately cryptic captions: "Deep reflective hocus pocus . . . and 53 Black Spots." All of the brightly colored figures are placed on equally intense monochromatic backgrounds, and all are either intricately intertwined as the spread opens, or move with the pull of a sturdy tab. Without some learned commentary, the general theme is likely to pass over the heads of children (not to mention many grown-ups), but all of the movement and color here create a riveting visual experience. (Novelty. 6-8, adult)

Kirkus Reviews