Friday, October 7, 2011

Spooky Tricks

In our last post we saw terrific examples of "Spooky Magic" for your Halloween party, now today we have more highlights from "Spooky Tricks", an I Can Read Book (1968) by Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames, with cute pictures by Talivaldis Stubis. These are simple, effective tricks that you can perform with little or no props (aka: easy to find items probably already in your home) --so break out the ghosts and severed mummy fingers-- it's time to get seriously spooky!











9 comments:

David Wahl said...

Could I request the floating trick be scanned? It's my strongest memory from this book. Two sticks with shoes under a blanket.

You continue to be awesome!

That Hank said...

I either had this book or checked it out of the school library multiple times. I saw that picture of the guy full of holes and it was instantly familiar. Thank you!

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i washed out as a magician so i became a musician! great stuff, Kars!

Mr. Karswell said...

>Could I request the floating trick be scanned?

Well, we had the floating trick in the last post... didn't want to repeat tricks. There's still alot from this book I'd like to post here at AEET eventually so keep checking back!

>I saw that picture of the guy full of holes and it was instantly familiar.

As a kid, I used to draw pics of people with holes in them because of this book... I always loved that too.

>i washed out as a magician so i became a musician! great stuff, Kars!

And to me you'll always be the raddest Prof in the lab!

Eeeek! 21 days until Halloween-- I seriously need to pick up the post pace around here!

Mr. Cavin said...

Oops. It took me two days to realize this was a new post. The problem with the new widescreen shape of computer monitors is that there is much less above the fold. All I could see was the title and a sliver of the cover scan, so I thought this was the other magic trick book.

Hey, I really love the writing in this book (unlike the rest of you, I've never seen it before--my own childhood spooky tricks books are yet to be posted). The way the prose is handled is actually sort of deceptive in its tricky pretend simplicity. I laughed right out loud a couple of times.

I also love that kickass spider web page. It looks just like greeting card art to me.

Amber Von Felts said...

This is the book! I had this book as a kid, I remember these illustrations very well! The Mummy Finger was my favorite trick! Thanks for this post. It was a walk down memory lane!

Mr. Karswell said...

>my own childhood spooky tricks books are yet to be posted

Do you remember what the books were called, Mr C?

>The Mummy Finger was my favorite trick!

When you mentioned that in the other post Amber, I wondered if this was the book you were talking about. Glad it was!

More Halloweiner stuff coming up!

Mr. Cavin said...

"Do you remember what the books were called, Mr C?"

I don't. And since you asked I've been wracking the internet trying to jog my memory and I can't find anything that rings a bell. I'm just assuming I'll know it when I see it, but that may not be the case. And heck, I might be remembering the back of an Electric Company or Pizzazz magazine, for all I know.

It was easy as heck to find all my favorite teen magic trick books (cards, slight of hand, that sort of thing), but the younger stuff is being difficult to turn up.

Allen's Brain said...

I'll join the ranks of folks who read this as a kid. Loved seeing it again! Thanks!