Haunted House Pop Up

The door says "let yourself in." A tentacle is already coming through the letterbox. Inside, room by room, some of the most extraordinary pop-ups ever put in a children's book spring out at you: creaking, lurching, genuinely alarming in the best possible way. Jan Pienkowski's Haunted House has been terrifying and delighting children for over forty years, and it has not mellowed with age.

We love it because:

• The pop-up engineering is extraordinary: each room reveals something more elaborate and more unsettling than the last, the kind of paper engineering that makes adults stop and say "how did they do that"
• It is properly spooky without being genuinely frightening: the horror is theatrical and imaginative rather than disturbing, which makes it completely irresistible for children who like a good scare they're in control of
• The holographic foil cover and five new hidden flaps make this edition feel genuinely special, a worthy update to a book that has earned its place as a classic
• The kind of book that lives on a special shelf and gets brought out for visitors, because watching someone open it for the first time never gets old

What's in the box:

• Hardback pop-up book, 12 pages
• Multiple pop-up scenes throughout
• Five hidden flaps with extra horrors
• Holographic foil cover
• By Jan Pienkowski, published by Walker Books

Great for:

• Ages 5 and up, and any adult who remembers it from childhood and wants to share the experience
• A Halloween gift, a birthday present or simply one of those books that earns a permanent place on the shelf
• Shared reading, gasping, and the particular pleasure of a pop-up that really delivers

Important to know:

• Hardback, 12 pages
• Pop-up book; handle with care to preserve the engineering
• ISBN: 9781844288748
• Published October 2005