Aladdin: A Cut-Paper Book Hardcover – September 1, 2014

A fabulous book, absolutely gorgeous! Any older child, past the tearing-of-book-pages age would love it and be lucky to get it. Adults, too!

Beautiful book with amazing images.

beautiful book

I LOVE the paper cut-out illustrations in this book! They're stunning. I honestly don't know how they mass-produce these books - I mean, each image is probably cut in batches with a laser cutter, but do the books have to be assembled by hand? I would love to know more about the process. As far as retellings of Aladdin go, this one is pretty good. It seems to be a more or less direct version of the tale, although the setting isn't Chinese, but seems to be a fairy land of indiscriminate origin, because the characters could be interpreted as wearing Indian and European clothing. Aladdin also doesn't age, appearing as a young boy throughout the story. But that makes sense for a cut-out - in a shadow puppet theater I'm pretty sure they'd use the same puppet for the character throughout the show, even if the character ages throughout the performance. The paper cutouts tend to float over the page, and aren't securely detached in some areas. It would be easy for a child to tear the book, so I really wouldn't recommend the book for really little ones. But as an art piece, it's quite fun.

This is a beautiful book. The paper cut outs are crisp and extremely detailed! This is the perfect gift for an older child (toddlers would destroy it, it's too delicate). It's the perfect balance of detail & ambiguity to enliven the imagination. It reminds me of Lotte Reineger's Adventures of Prince Achmed.

This is a gorgeous looking book. A great story, but the real selling point is how intricate the illustrations are. You'll feel guilty for closing it and putting it back on the bookshelf. Great for older children.

Lovely book