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Known for his series of pop-up adventures using bright colors and folk-artsy-style illustrations, Vojtech Kubastaā€™s beautifully paper-engineered books have been translated into multiple languages and were read worldwide by children during the 1960s and 1970s.

Highlighted this week by the Libraries is ā€œ!ā€ (1960s), one of Kubastaā€™s books that has easily assimilated into the world of three-dimensional art and is loved by people worldwide.

ā€œKubasta is one of the biggest names in the history and evolution of movable booksā€ said Miriam Intrator, special collections librarian.

According to , Vienna-born Kubasta, who grew up in Prague and studied architecture and engineering at the Czech Technical University, never intended to become a pop-up artistā€”but as was true of many Europeans during those times, World War II upended his life and turned his artistic endeavors elsewhere.

ā€œIn between, Kubastaā€™s fertile imagination and restless hand [he] turned out a remarkable volume of work in every conceivable genre: advertising art, government propaganda posters, souvenirs of Prague and Brno, a pop-up Mecca for the Iranian market, a series of childrenā€™s counting books, classic fairy tales, a cover illustration for the Czech translation of ā€˜The Egg and I,ā€™ Christmas nativity scenes, New Yearā€™s cards and an unsigned series of pop-up books tied to ā€˜Bambi,ā€™ ā€˜101 Dalmatiansā€™ and other Walt Disney films,ā€ wrote Grimes.

The classic tale written by the Brothers Grimm, ā€œLay Table Lay!ā€ contains eight cut-away illustrations constructed as a three-dimensional ā€œstandingā€ artwork that is joined accordion-style to the spine of the book.

ā€œThe main things I want people to take away from a Kubasta book is knowing they are [not only] looking at a book made by one of the most important people in the history of movable books, but also experiencing the color, and the texture and the depth of the images,ā€ said Intrator. ā€œYou may not even notice the text because you are so drawn into the images.ā€

Please continue to follow the #MovableMondays series on the Librariesā€™ social media accounts: , ,  and .

Here is what you may have missed: ā€œAstronomicum Caesareum;ā€œ&²Ō²ś²õ±č;The Daily Express;ā€ ā€œMariners Compass Rectified;ā€ ā€œA Series of Amusing Transformation Scenes; ā€œA Pop-up Guide to North American Wildflowers;ā€ and ā€œRobinson Crusoe.ā€