THE TITANIC NOTEBOOK

For Titanic  completists, a standard account of the ship's building and sinking enhanced by pop-ups and capped by a model to be assembled from several dozen punch-out pieces. Though wrong in claiming that the liner was the first to have a swimming pool (that honor goes to the Adriatic, built in 1907), the descriptive notes are laudably dense with technical data and factual information. They are extended by a well-chosen mix of painted reconstructions and (more often) contemporary photos, prints and documents. There are also flaps and booklets, a miniature poster in a pocket and pop-ups of the Titanic's  bow, a lifeboat and Robert Ballard's submersible Alvin and its remote-controlled robot Jason Jr. A pouch at the rear holds a folded instruction sheet and several sheets of pre-punched card stock that, with care and judicious use of glue, can be worked up into a flat-bottomed but reasonably finely detailed model. Wrapped in flimsy covers held shut with an elastic band, this has a homemade look that may draw DIYers—but all in all, it's a familiar tale told yet again. (Pop-up/nonfiction. 8-11)