Letíme vesmírem [Flying Through the Universe]: Three Editions.

Three language editions of this Kubašta pop-up book, each with a die-cut cover framing a cellophane-windowed telescope through which a boy spies a rocket above the moon, and two interior double-page pop-ups: the rocket alone against the moon, then a full launch-pad diorama with gantry tower, crane, aircraft, and toy cars.

The story follows two boys, Petr and Miloš, on an imagined space voyage guided by Petr’s father, an astronautics engineer.

The Czech-language copy, translated from Čajda’s original Slovak text by R. Illnerová, was issued by Mladé letá of Bratislava as the 957th title in its “Prostorové knížky” (Spatial Books) pop-up series. The Russian edition, Letim v kosmos [We’re Flying to Space], came from Artia in Prague, crediting only Kubašta by name. The Bulgarian edition, Letim vav vselenata [We Fly into the Universe], was translated from the Slovak text by Georgi Valchev and issued by Narodna Mladezh in Sofia in a print run of 80,000. All three have functional pop-up mechanisms, with the wear typical of the format.