Ben's Box: A Pop-Up Fantasy

by Michael Foreman

Ben plays with the box his mother's new washing machine came in, pretending it is a spaceship, a submarine, and a ledge for battling dragons.

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Michael has worked on magazines, book jackets, animated films, TV adverts, and even for the police, sketching criminals described by witnesses. As well as illustrating many of his own books, Michael has illustrated over a hundred books for authors such as Shakespeare, J. M. Barrie, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. Michael has travelled widely - to Africa, Japan, the Arctic Circle, China and Malaysia, the Himalayas, Siberia and New Zealand - to research his books. "I do a lot of research when I'm travelling - I find it thrilling to discover the particular 'art' of different landscapes and work them into a book. But I find I have to travel by myself, otherwise I'm constantly getting involved in other people's impressions of a place... I try to be invisible when I'm travelling, so I tend to listen in on conversations rather than participate in them - I just want to look and draw."

Reviews

[Heidi]

20 pages.

The illustrations were nice and attractive
and appropriate.

The plot was slightly above average.

The pop-up creations were quite good though.
I would say that the pop-ups were 9/10.

[Amy]

A book about the imaginative ways a boy plays with a box.