Batman, the Animated Series: A Pop-Up Playbook

Holy paper engineering! A comic strip-style story--involving a stolen parchment and the kidnapping of Catwoman--begins on this volume's front cover. The book opens to reveal the Batcave--our hero's headquarters--complete with working Batcomputer: images of the cowled crusader's arch enemies are displayed on-screen, via a rotating paper dial. The saga of the missing artwork is continued on three large flaps which unfold (around what becomes the center panel) to reveal the elaborate pop-up hideaways of villains Two-Face, Poison Ivy and the fiendish Joker. Pull-tabs activate Two-Face's twin battle-axes and Poison Ivy's man-eating houseplant, while a cleverly engineered cardboard lever allows readers to rescue a trussed Catwoman from a fatal conveyer-belt ride. Punch-out figures of the story's main players can be moved through the locales; a ``punch-out storage area'' is also provided. The vertiginous perspectives of the moody, detailed artwork are particularly distinctive; however, the truncated plot makes repeated ``readings'' unlikely. Ages 6-10. (Apr.)