Illustrator of the Frozen pop up book, Matthew Reinhart, paid a visit to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature on Thursday.
Reinhart is a paper engineer who has created and illustrated many children’s pop up books, including Star Wars, Transformers, Cinderella and Lego.
“I’ve created over 35 different books,” said Reinhart. “They have ranged from everything like Dinosaurs to mythologies, and I’ve now started doing characters from movies and cartoons.”
Reinhart has recently been doing more work with Disney and his latest works included Frozen and Lego, which drew quite a few kids to his visit Thursday.
“I’m kind of like a big kid that is playing in all these different worlds and cutting up paper, folding it and making pop ups.” Said Reinhart.
Reinhart said he was connected with Abilene eight years ago when a pop up exhibit was started here.
The exhibit included much of his work that is still recognized around the nation today..
“The exhibit showed our preliminary sketches and prototypes of some of the pop ups, so it featured several different books of ours, so anytime I can do something for the NCCIL, I’m here,” said Reinhart.
When asked about what his favorite works, Reinhart included his popular book, Star Wars: Pop Up Guide To The Galaxy, that came out in 2007.
“The book focuses around the original trilogy,” said Reinhart. “There’s a Darth Vader head at the end that’s completely in 3D, and also it includes working lightsabers.”
He also mentioned his Lego pop up book as well as his Game of Thrones book for his favorite works.
Reinhart concluded his night with a book signing for everyone in attendance.