Book Review: The Magic Handbook
Author: Peter Elden
Date: 1985
Publisher: Kingfisher / Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-671-55050-3
Length: 189 pages
Illustrations: full color, by Jeane Colville and others
Quote: “Welcome to the world of magic...where the laws of nature appear to be turned upside down and where the impossible is made to seem possible.”
Accessible to middle school readers, The Magic Handbook is aimed at magicians who can’t afford very specialized props. Some tricks rely on the natural properties of common objects, like transferring a pencil marking from a sugar cube to someone else’s hand using a damp fingertip, or exploiting the peculiar properties of the Moebius strip. Others call for manual dexterity—flipping, hiding, and “palming” objects.
As with other kid-friendly books on stage magic that you can buy from me, this one illustrates the premise that “unto the pure all things are pure.” Sleight-of-hand is a wholesome way to amuse friends who enjoy wondering how the performer does a trick...but it’s not for nothing that one of the basic moves in sleight-of-hand is called “stealing.” Sleight-of-hand has been used to perpetrate hoaxes like the Fox sisters’ allegedly summoning table-rapping spirits, or simpler frauds like picking pockets and cheating at card games. Knowing how these tricks work can help honest people protect themselves from being robbed or swindled. James Randi has made a career of exposing people who are still using more advanced forms of sleight-of-hand to perpetrate frauds and hoaxes.
The Magic Handbook offers a wide range of tricks. A few require extensive practice (and may increase a computer user’s risk for carpal tunnel problems), but several rely on memory and on verbal and math skills. Adults will be able to guess how the tricks work, but children will be gratifyingly mystified, and everyone should be amused.
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