No, I am not talking about my little prince, Charlie, but about the wonderful book (published in 1943) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the legendary French aviator who disappeared on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean in July 1944. He was flying with the Free French Forces on what turned out to be his final assignment: collecting intelligence data on German troop movements in and around the Rhone Valley before the Allied invasion of southern France.In 1998, a fisherman named found a silver identity bracelet bearing the names of Saint Exupéry and his wife Consuelo and his publishers, Reynal & Hitchcock, hooked to a piece of fabric, presumably from his flight suit.
From Wikipedia: "In 2000, a diver named Luc Vanrell found a P-38 Lightning crashed in the seabed off the coast of Marseille. The remains of the aircraft were recovered in October 2003. Investigators from the French Underwater Archaeological Department confirmed that the plane was, indeed, Saint Exupéry's F-5B reconnaissance variant. In June 2004, the fragments were given to the Museum of Air and Space in Le Bourget."
The Little Prince was partly inspired by St. Exupéry's crash, with his navigator, in the Sahara in 1935. It is "a poetic self-illustrated tale in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince from a tiny asteroid; a philosophical story, including societal criticism and remarking on the strangeness of the adult world.
I discovered this book sometime in the 60s and it has remained one of my favorite books of all time. No matter how many times I read it, I am entranced. Imagine my delight when I saw that a pop-up version had been published. I promptly bought it and I love it. The book is gorgeous. The popups are magical and throughout the book there are also small popups concealed behind panels that can be opened.
The Amazon page has a short video presentation where you can take a tour through the book The Little Prince PopUp
This was the perfect Christmas gift from me to me!