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Christmas shopping can be easily remedied and made easier by just getting your loved ones the best gifts: books! Here is a list of some unique and wonderful books that are perfect for all ages.
 
The Art of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse (Disney Editions Deluxe), by Jessica Ward, celebrates Mickey’s ninetieth anniversary with this beautiful over-sized edition. It’s broken down into three parts: Mickey’s Animated Filmography, Mickey’s Milestones and Mickey’s Gallery. The first section showcases Mickey’s animated performances listing shorts, films and television programs. The milestones cover from his cartoons to comics and includes the Disney Parks. The third section shows renderings that inspired Disney Consumer Products as well as interactive Media. The artwork throughout is reason enough to purchase this beautiful book. And, you will find the history behind it to be amazing and surprising.
Walt’s Imagination: The Life of Walt Disney, by Doreen Rappaport, and gorgeously painted by animator John Pomeroy, is a picture book that begins with Disney’s life as a child growing up in rural Missouri. There are a couple of dominate themes found throughout the book as you read about his life growing into adulthood: his imagination and his ability to work hard to make things happen. Another character trait that jumps out about Walt was his conscientious attention to detail. Once Walt was able to achieve some success with his animations, you see how he revolutionized this art form changing it from mundane to exciting, and with humor and expression. The paintings completely fill one side of the open-page spread. You’ll find inspiring quotes from Walt throughout, as well as a timeline of important dates in his life (found at the back of the book).
Dinosaurium: Welcome to the Museum, by Lily Murray, and perfectly painted by Chris Wormell, is the perfect book for the dinosaur lover in your family. On every open-page spread is a full painting of well-known, and lesser known, dinosaurs filling one side. The opposite side has a full description of that particular dinosaur. This is an over-sized book and part of the “Museum” series which are all as well done as this outstanding book. The other books in this series, which have a similar layout, include subjects about animals (“Animalium”) and plants, (“Botanicum”).
Space: The Definitive Visual Catalog, by Sean Callery and Miranda Smith, will take you far beyond the reaches of our nearest planets. The photographs, by NASA, are bright and colorful and in some cases completely fill the open-page. There is a double page spread of Saturn that is spectacular! If you have a blooming astronaut in your family, this book – full of information about our solar system – will be a huge success!
Train, by Ian Graham, and filled with layers of informative illustrations by Stephen Biesty, begins with a train back in the early 1800’s and progresses with the turn of each page to modern fast-moving trains. Each train portrayed is on hard card-stock paper and features multiple lift-the-flaps showcasing layers of detail beneath the surface that makes Biesty’s work so famous.
Flying Machines, also by Graham, and illustrated by Biesty, has a similar layout only featuring airplanes and helicopters beginning with the earliest flying machine. This book also progresses through time and ends with technology of a possible rocket space plane making the possibilities seem endless.
 
Ten Horse Farm, by Robert Sabuda, is a pop-up book made by this master paper engineer! Sabuda is once again magnificently showcasing his ability to make these horses jump off every page. Horses are jumping, grazing, galloping and moving in every way a horse could move as they pop-out. The other extraordinary engineering feet is the easy way they fold quickly inward as you turn to a new page.
See the Stripes, by Andy Mansfield, is an inventive book that really stretches the mind! Each page instructs one to look for a particular colored stripe. However, with the turn of each page, it becomes more and more difficult to locate the colored stripe.
You must maneuver the paper in a particular fashion to achieve and accomplish locating the stripe. Sometimes this requires folding corners of the pages in a particular order to accomplish the task. This book is definitely a mind-bending activity and good for all to challenge your creativeness.
Disney Pixar: A Pop-Up Celebration, by Matthew Reinhart, is another pop-up made by the other famous paper engineer. This book celebrates the history of famous Pixar movies with a small pop-up of each movie. Every page has three or four small pop-ups to represent three or four Pixar movies. It begins with the first Pixar movie, “Toy Story”, in 1995. Other movies featured include “Monsters Inc.”, “The Incredibles” and “Coco”. This book is a delight and brings each movie to the forefront.
