Paper Magic : Creating Fantasies and Performing Tricks with Paper

A professional magician shares some of his trade secrets using a few quick paper folds and snips to create trees, ladders, rabbits, lanterns, and more.

Grade 4-6-- Libraries that never seem to have enough material on magic tricks will welcome these two titles. Paper Magic gives clear, well-diagramed instructions for several simple crafts made from folding, rolling, and/or cutting paper. Included are such common items as a shaggy newspaper tree and an eight-sided snowflake. The second half of the volume, devoted to paper illusions, is more unusual. Tricks with accompanying stories to be told by the performer are outlined. Directions are clear, but, of course, require much practice to perfect. Voice Magic covers ventriloquism and voice conjuring. The black-and-white cartoon illustrations are not instructive. The text offers a clear introduction to a skill that demands much practice. Casual readers will not glean much information without actually attempting the tricks. A more in-depth overview for a slightly older audience is Darryl Hutton's Ventriloquism (Sterling, 1975; o.p.). --Marilyn Long Graham, Lee County Library System, Fort Myers, FL
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Step-by-step directions for creating 12 paper projects and magic tricks. The projects include a shaggy tree, Jacob's ladder, a popper, a snowflake, and a whirligig; the directions given in the text and in the soft blue and black illustrations are fairly clear. For the magic tricks, McGill explains what materials are needed, ``what you appear to do,'' and ``what you really do,'' providing magician's patter as well as practice tips. The tricks include sleight of hand and tricky paper-cutting; some, like the ``number mindreader'' and the ``Chinese compass,'' may require much practice. Approachable format with a slick permabound cover, glossy interior pages, and excessively wide margins. An adequate choice for budding magicians. The ``further reading'' is too limited to be useful. Index. (Nonfiction. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.