The Two Bad Mice Pop-Up Book

Had Beatrix Potter anticipated the pop-up book, perhaps this story would have been her choice for the format. The familiar tale of two mice who wreak havoc on a dollhouse when they discover that the miniature food isn't edible has been given three-dimensional life. Potter's mischievous rodents run through dollhouse corridors, stretch up toward the dining-room table, peek through holes in walls, and actually slip the crooked sixpence into the doll stocking as penance for their naughtiness. The tableaux are deliberately simple, setting off the details of the original illustrations, but there are plenty of levers to wiggle and pull. Both for the reader who knows Potter's books and for one who has somehow missed Peter Rabbit, this book is a genuine charmer in a very crowded field. (38)