ALA Booklist
While a pop-up edition of de Saint-Exupéry's enduring tale may initially seem like a gimmick, the resulting volume is a beautiful piece of bookmaking that actually extends the classic story. In 3-D form, the original artwork feels new, and inventive design elements, such as the fold-out windows that reveal the narrator's attempts to sketch a sheep to the Little Prince's specifications, add whimsy while focusing even more attention on the images. As with any edition of The Little Prince, the question of audience remains, but this unabridged volume offers a creative, accessible entrée to the timeless story.
Horn Book
(Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)
An updated translation and a generous (though still cozy) trim size distinguish this new edition of a classic child's perspective on the adult world, with beloved original--and now restored--illustrations.
Kirkus Reviews
"[E]yes are blind. You have to look with the heart," says the little prince, which makes this pop-up edition of the 1943 classic a bit of an odd duck. De Saint-Exupery's minimalist illustrations become full-color paper-engineered elements in a blown-up, two-inch-thick unabridged edition. Flaps lift, figures pop, tableaux emerge in ingenious fashion, creating a reading experience as surreal as the story. But the tension between text and image inherent in any illustrated book is exacerbated to the nth degree here, as the beguiling doodads beckon readers to race through the pages, leaving the story they're meant to illustrate behind. The contemplative fable is turned into a mere excuse for paper whimsy, the fun of making the prince turn to meet the fox overriding the wonder of the interaction. Too cool for its own good. (Pop-up/fiction. 10 & up)
School Library Journal
YA-This new translation into "modern" English brings a classic tale into sharper focus for today's teens without sacrificing the beauty and simplicity of the author's writing, and the "restored" artwork has all the charm of the original drawings. What appears to be a simple tale of two lost souls-one, a pilot marooned in the desert next to his ditched plane; the other, a minuscule prince in self-imposed exile from an asteroid so small that he can watch the sunset 44 times a day-reveals itself as something far more complex. What appears to be a fairy tale for children opens like the petals of the Little Prince's flower into a fantasy that has lessons for all of us.-Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.