Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book

by Rufus Butler Seder

Overview

There's never before been a book like Gallop! Employing a patented new technology called Scanimation, each page is a marvel that brings animals, along with one shining star, to life with art that literally moves. It's impossible not to flip the page, and flip it again, and again, and again.

A first book of motion for kids, it shows a horse in full gallop and a turtle swimming up the page. A dog runs, a cat springs, an eagle soars, and a butterfly flutters. Created by Rufus Butler Seder, an inventor, artist, and filmmaker fascinated by antique optical toys, Scanimation is a state-of-the-art six-phase animation process that combines the "persistence of vision" principle with a striped acetate overlay to give the illusion of movement. It harkens back to the old magical days of the kinetoscope, and the effect is astonishing, like a Muybridge photo series springing into action—or, in terms kids can relate to, like a video without a screen. Complementing the art is a delightful rhyming text full of simple questions and fun, nonsense replies: Can you gallop like a horse? giddyup-a-loo! Can you strut like a rooster? cock-a-doodle-doo!

Every child who opens the book will be amazed—and so will every parent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761147633
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/22/2007
Series:	Scanimation Picture Book Series
Pages:	12
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.38(h) x 1.13(d)
Lexile:	390L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Rufus Butler Seder is an optical genius whose first significant invention was Lifetiles, glass-walled murals that appear to come to life when the viewer walks by. He’s installed them at the Smithsonian, SeaWorld, Union Station, and other museums, aquariums, train stations, and ocean liners around the world. Next came Scanimation, and his company EyeThink, Inc., a business that produces a line of toys and gifts using technologies he’s invented. Mr. Seder lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

"At first glance, this looks like a regular old picture book—but the second you open it up, you'll be mesmerized. Thanks to a brand-new technique called "scanimation," the images on each page seem to move, as though you were watching a film instead of simply reading. Horses gallop, eagles soar—and young readers' jaws drop! It's the coolest book we've seen in a while."
—www.parenting.com, "Daily Favs"

From the Publisher

"At first glance, this looks like a regular old picture book—but the second you open it up, you'll be mesmerized. Thanks to a brand-new technique called "scanimation," the images on each page seem to move, as though you were watching a film instead of simply reading. Horses gallop, eagles soar—and young readers' jaws drop! It's the coolest book we've seen in a while."
—www.parenting.com, "Daily Favs"

Parenting.com

"Gallop, by Rufus Butler Seder, made an obvious case for itself with ooh-ah graphics, using trademarked Scanimation, a low-tech marvel of sliding paper and stripes. Turn the page, and you set black-and-white pictures of various animals into motion - that is, if certain short people ever let you turn the page. Your kids will elbow you out of the way. They will also elbow each other out of the way."
—The Washington Post

The Washington Post

"The pictures of animals, birds and fish seem to move with extraordinary naturalism… [The animals] are mesmerizing for all ages, especially for aspiring artists who will want to know how it's done."
—New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review