Quarto. 8pp., plus a pop-up at the end of the book designed by the acclaimed Czech artist and paper engineer Vojtech Kubasta. The book opens with the tale "Tony and the Circus Boy," in which a child befriends a new classmate whose parents are circus performers. Illustrated with black & white head-and tailpieces, and whimsical depictions of circus acts inside the covers. With a stunning, colorful, three dimensional pop-up of a circus big top, complete with musicians in an upper gallery, acrobats on trapezes, roaring lions and tigers, prancing horses, and the ringmaster standing in the center of it all. The book's three-fold board covers open flat, allowing the pop-up scene, which is nearly a foot tall, to stand up on its own. The scene also has numerous movable elements within it: when tabs are pulled, elephants bow and raise their heads, monkeys teeter on a ball, and a bear rides a bicycle pulled by a clown. Kubasta's pop-up books are known for their bold, rich color and were printed in Czechoslovakia on special presses at the state-run publishing house Artia. Creasing to top edge of upper board. Modest edgewear, light staining to final leaf, ringmaster figure partially detached, else a very good copy bound in bright, illustrated boards depicting a performer surrounded by circus animals, as a tiger leaps through her hoop.