Scribo, £6.99, ISBN 978-1-910706-63-3
Arts and Crafts, 2016

Make Your Own Magic Tricks is a gorgeously illustrated book that serves two purpose.

One, it’s a neat and simple arts and crafts guide to help the reader make simple props for their upcoming amateur hour magic show. What is really nice here is that this thing also comes with pop-out sturdy cardboard templates for dice, coin tray, clock surface, and other props, so the kid won’t have to bother the parents to go search for too many things, heh.

Of course, some things like wooden doweling may need some hunting down for, but at least one won’t need to make a costly shopping spree to the nearest arts and crafts store!

Two, once the props and costumes are ready. this one lets the reader do stuff. It has step by step instructions to teach the reader how to do simple magic tricks with cards, dice, handkerchiefs, and some mental calculations. Sorry, folks, no actual woo-woo stuff here, because come on, let’s be real. 

This is where things falter a little. There is only so much the written instructions and static illustrations can do, especially when it comes to getting dexterous and sneaky with fingers and what not. Here, video instructions and demonstrations would be a big help, especially for younger readers.

Therefore, in an ideal word, this one would come equipped with QR codes to link up readers with relevant video demonstrations!

Still, it’s a gorgeous book to look at because of all the pretty illustrations on every page, and it can be a brief distraction for kids that want to make things with their hands. There are certainly far worse things one can buy for that rare kid that still prefers reading a book to playing on the phone.