The Most Amazing Pop-Up Science Book

Normally I run a mile from gimmick books, but this one, round which the publishers seem to be building a massive media plug, has me quite engaged. It's an exploration of various physical phenomena with working models to demonstrate them - one to each of seven spreads.

So, for instance, the opening devoted to photography has, central to it, a pop-up camera obscura through which I can observe the sheep upside down on the hill opposite (which is upside down too). Surrounding this are little capsules about Daguerre and Fox Talbot, Muybridge, the structure of the eye, apertures and exposures, camcorders and polaroid film. Similarly a pop-up sundial dominates the time section, a distorting mirror and kaleidoscope front a light and colour feature and the hole in the back cover is in fact the peep-hole of a what-the-butler-sawroscope which lets me see the sheep right way up as I pretend to read more optical information. And there's a microscope and a compass, but perhaps most impressively the book contains its own gramophone. Fold out the stylus-bearing cardboard pickup/resonator to engage with the grooves on the plastic disc. Push the disc round with your finger and hear a recently recorded cover version of T A Edison's original chartbuster 'Mary had a little lamb'.

So, it's a gimmick all right, on time for Christmas, and at a little over £2 per spread it's a bit expensive. But the engineering is simple enough to suggest durability and the devices do actually work very well. Probably not a library book but definitely one to amaze your friends.