The Spider-Verse Unfolds, a durable, pop-up style book for Miles Morales

When is a pop-up book not a pop-up book? We love high-quality, intricate pop-up books but readily acknowledge that their complexity paired with their price point makes them an unrealistic option for younger, unsupervised audiences. An Abrams Unfolds Books is a series from Abrams Books for Young Readers that takes the pop-up elements that attract pre-k audiences and puts them in a package that’s durable and less likely to get destroyed. The Spider-Verse Unfolds is the second book in the series and visits Miles Morales, as well as, some others from his spider-centric world.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a great movie. It proved that excellent animation can come from more than one studio, and had a plot that satisfied fans and critics. The pages in The Spider-Verse Unfolds look as if they’re taken directly from that movie. It’s possible that a couple of them are original for the book; but they’re close enough to where casual fans of the film, like me, won’t be able to distinguish if they are or not.

The pages in Into the Spider-Verse are thicker than those that readers would find in chapter books, yet thinner than board books. They’re approximately the width of poster board, including the accordion-middle parts of the pages that will be the most attractive elements to young readers. As you turn each page you’ll see an illustration on that accordion, a fold-out element that works in tandem with the printed words on the bottom.

The real magic happens when a page is vertical and the accordion effect is working on all cylinders. When this happens you’ll see what happened in the story, what’s happening, and what will happen. It’s a reader’s own Spider-Verse in the palm of their hands.

The accompanying text that’s on top of or below the accordion is simple to slightly complex sentences. They’re not the sort of sentences that those young ages will be able to read by themselves, but some of the vocabulary will be those sight words that they’ll be learning really soon. It’s the images and the interactivity that will invite, and keep those students who are aged four and up. And, because it’s Miles Morales, it’s a character that even those second, third, and even fourth graders will want to see, especially if they’ve seen the movie. This will get them talking about the film, then going back to the book and you’ll be witnessing product crossover magic for the better.

The Spider-Verse Unfolds, An Abrams Unfolds Book is available from Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams Books.

There are affiliate links in this post.