Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Pop-Up Book

We all know and love it. We all wanted to write it. We all want to visit it, if only through the pages of a book - it's Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - but with a very papery edge. It's pop-up. That's right. Roald Dahl AND pop-up. Could there be anything more magical??

This gorgeous book - I was kind of afraid to open. I wondered if it would be like the many other pop-up incarnations before it - a little bit cheap and schmaltzy.

But no.


This is gorgeous paper engineering. It is superlative Quentin Blake images brought to life and origamied around an abridged version of the original story - complete with shiny golden ticket, ensconced in a block of Wonka's Whipple-Scrumptous Fudge Mallow Delight.

This storybook will utterly delight children, and happily - adults too. Fingers and eyes will be tugging and flipping and rotating wheels, on the hunt for yet another visual surprise. Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee can all be yanked and pulled out of sight, in gorgeous double-page spreads, beautifully showcasing the story.

The only thing missing is chocolate, and that's easily fixed.

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Pop-Up Book
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Publisher: Penguin, $24.95 RRP
Publication Date: 31 October 2011
Format: Hard cover
ISBN:9780141328874 
For ages: 7+
Type: Picture Book, Pop-Up Book