Swing!: A Scanimation Picture Book by Rufus Butler Seder

Product Details

Synopsis

Published last fall, Gallop! introduced the amazing technology called Scanimation and took the children’s book world by storm. It became an instant bestseller—#1 on The New York Times children's list.

Now Swing! does for kids what Gallop! does for animals—a boy rides a bike, a girl kicks her soccer ball, a swimmer cuts through the water, and a skater pirouettes on ice. The effect is joyous, magical, mesmerizing, and taps into the the endless fascination that children find in watching other children. The second book created by Rufus Butler Seder, the inventor, artist, and filmmaker who developed Scanimation out of his obsession with antique optical toys and other pre-motion-picture illusions, Swing! uses "persistence of vision" and a patented state-of-the-art multiphase animation process to create astonishment. There is nothing else like this unique, patented technology that literally inspires wonder.

The images burst with activity, and adding greatly is a happy, rhyming text that captures in words the pure energy of the figures in motion. You can't put it down.

Publishers Weekly

Admirers of Gallop! which last year introduced Seder's astonishing Scanimation technology, won't want to miss this sports-themed follow-up. Open the die-cut cover and see a baseball player swing his bat at a ball, then watch as the ball zooms ever-larger to fit the acetate window showcasing all this action. Yes, there's motion on each of these spreads, or the illusion of motion, as hidden engineering triggers codes on the b&w Scanimation images. As in the previous title, colored fonts and multicolored borders offset the severity of the b&w pictures and generate reader participation: "Can you ride a bicycle?/ spin! vrim! vrooom!" On other spreads, child athletes perform soccer drills, run, cartwheel, twirl on ice skates, shoot hoops, swim and lead cheers-it's all jaw-dropping, even if the novelty technology has yet to find its most imaginative application. Ages 3-up. (Oct.)

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Biography

Rufus Butler Seder is the inventor of Lifetiles, glass-tiled murals that appear to come to life when the viewer walks by; he's installed them at the Smithsonian, Sea World, Union Station, and other museums, aquariums, train stations, and ocean liners around the world. He is also the founder of Eye Think, Inc., a company that develops and produces a line of toys and gifts using the technologies he's invented. Mr. Seder lives in Boston.