Book In Review

        This is a great book for kids.  This handbook shows wonderful illustrations for performing magic tricks with ropes and coins.  It also gives you wonderful tips for preparing ahead of time to do a trick, gives information about what props are needed to do the tricks; and, the book also gives ideas and hints on performing the tricks in the best way possible.  There are even little snippets about famous and skilled magicians and tricks that they were known for. 

      For those who have not performed in front of an audience…there are some helpful ideas on how to relax your audience and help them focus on what you want them to focus on and how to distract them from the things that you dont want them to notice while performing a trick.  For tricks that use slight of hand motions there are some behind the scenes suggestions that will keep the audience guessing about how the magician was able to perform such a neat trick.

       Kids will love this book so that they can amaze anyone by doing these tricks in front of them.  It will make them an instant hit with their peers when they know how the trick is done and their friends do not. 

         The author of the book is Joe Fullman, the editor is Amanda Askew, the designer is Jackie Palmer, the illustrator is Mark Turner for Beehive Illustrations.  The publisher is Steve Evans and the creative director is Zeta Davies.  The book was published by QEB Publishing, Inc in 2008.  Their website can be found here:  http://www.qeb-publishing.com

    I’ve often thought that self discovery is a life time journey.   So many things in life are constantly moving and changing…but, a person’s basic emotional and spiritual makeup is pretty well set.  However, understanding yourself and developing yourself to your highest level is something many people are content to ignore.  Myself…I have tried to learn as I go.   I am reading a wonderful book by Ralph P. Brown called, Awakening The Eagle: A guide to the medicine wheel.          Ralph P. Brown is a native American of the Mohawk tribe.  Ralph has written a book that explains the concept of the medicine wheel and how to apply it to our lives.  The medicine wheel helps us in our journey of self discovery by teaching us life lessons that we can use to understand and explore the areas of our life that are often a mystery. 

          The medicine wheel uses stories and pictures as well as direct instruction to teach.   The symbols and the energy forces add understanding to what we are to learn in our daily lives to be a better person and to live our lives more fully and with purpose.  The realm of the physical and spiritual self are life forces that exist at the same time.   People who are willing to seek guidance in their lives through learning about the merging of the physical, spiritual and emotional planes are often those people who seek to understand their purpose in life.  We all have a purpose in life and are happiest when we are willing pursuing it.   I found this book to be very enlightening.

        The author, Ralph P. Brown is also a very talented artist.  He does pointillistic art work.  You can view some of his artistry here:  http://www.mirroredwindows.com/ .    Ralph and his wife Anita live in Nebraska and operate the Mirrored Windows Gallery which showcases Ralph’s gorgeous artwork.    You can check out his website about this book here:  http://www.ralphpbrown.com/.  I think that you would find the book very informative as well as beautifully presented with a gorgeous cover and some artwork scattered through the pages of the book.  Enjoy!