“The Persians were generous conquerors…”

Folks, to celebrate the launch of the new website, we’ve got a weird one for you.

I was looking for bible-related gamebooks out of curiosity, and instead discovered this here “You Make It Happen” series of pop-up bible stories produced by Word Books Incorporated. There are at least six of them, retelling famous bible stories with pop-up dioramas. Information on these books is apparently nonexistent, and it’s a shame because this book is a novelty. The cover image of Queen Esther doing the Thriller dance is worth the price of admission.

This is indeed a pop-up book, and as you read along with the story of Esther, you modify the diorama with a handful of characters and setpieces. The actual storybook is on the right, while on the left is a pocket for storing all the little paper diorama pieces.

I don’t know if I would agree with the Foreward about bible stories being “thrilling” overall. Although the one about Jesus flipping tables left and right is pretty dope.

The artwork is actually phenomenal. It doesn’t feel like a cheap little cash-in product: you can see the love that went into this.

But if you thought a modular bible pop-up book was an oddity, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! The premise of this series is that you, the reader, are a time-traveler sent back in time to study famous bible figures in person. So of course each book comes with a board game about travelling through time Bill and Ted style, phone booth time capsule and all!

The rules for this are a bit convoluted, but it does come with a neat Flash Gordon style spinner.

I swear, this looks like it belongs to a totally different product, but no, this time-travel gizmo does indeed come with this pop-up book about a Persian queen.

So now I’ll have to keep a lookout for the rest of these. I didn’t have the heart to un-punch this one, and it’s in fantastic condition. Maybe I’ll find the rest of them at a christian goodwill shop or something.

As for recommending it, well, it’s hard to say. The game aspect looks a bit jank, and I’m not much into religious edutainment. I prefer writing entertaining yarns that happen to have Christian values in them (forgiveness, family, the Golden Rule, etc). But the book itself is a work of art, and might make teaching bible stories to your kids kinda fun. Too bad the books are so obscure.