Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE WHITE HOUSE by Robert Sabuda Kirkus Star

THE WHITE HOUSE

A Pop-up of Our Nation's Home

by Robert Sabuda ; illustrated by Robert Sabuda

Pub Date: Dec. 29th, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-54089-6
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic

White House high spots, presented with 3-D flair by the archon of paper architects.

The opening multileveled scene of the building under construction—with working hoists, workers properly both dark and light of skin, and the real story about Dolley Madison’s rescue of the Washington portrait hidden beneath a side flap—sets high expectations that are more than met on subsequent spreads. The East Room sports a huge, bewilderingly complicated chandelier; the austerely furnished Lincoln Study is transformed to a bedroom with a flip; the Rose Garden and, at the end, the South Lawn offer broad expanses of green to set off the elegant white gallery and South Portico that rise up. Thanks to some masterly slides and interlocking folds, the climactic Oval Office actually is an uncreased half oval, with the flag-flanked presidential desk and (unoccupied) chair filling the center space. Along with brief captions and historical notes, Sabuda includes a public domain inaugural poem that he’s foresightedly tweaked by changing “man” to “person,” “his” to “our president,” and like alterations. As usual, the pop-ups are so complex and fragile that careful handling is a must. But for young readers on their way as tourists or otherwise to the nation’s capital, here’s a grand first glimpse.

A selective but resplendent tour.

(Informational pop-up. 6-9)