Recently, the children I work with have become fascinated by a couple of old magic sets we have available for break times. Watching them try and master the ‘cup and ball’ trick or to guess my card has really brought home to me the power of magic to inspire awe and wonder. And those are exactly the emotions ‘The Wonder Brothers’ taps into…

‘Maybe you don’t believe me. Maybe you don’t believe in magic. I bet you will by the time you’ve heard what happened to us.’

Cousins Middy and Nathan love magic. The on-stage, cape-swirling, bunny-out-of-a-hat kind.

For Middy, it’s all about patience and practice. She uses magic skills to help her out of tricky situations.

Nathan is a show-off and a total danger magnet, he is drawn to the sensation, spectacle and audience.

So when the famous Blackpool Tower dramatically vanishes the night of the Grand Lights Switch-On, showman Nathan announces live on TV that they will magic it back home.

With a stick of rock, a spangly cape, and a bit of misdirection, they end up lost in Las Vegas, home to the grand master of illusion, Perplexion, ‘Legend of Magic’.

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One of the things I love about this book is the liberally scattering of brilliant illustrations by Steven Lenton which are scattered throughout. They give a real sense of character and add even more humour to Cottrell-Boyce’s already very funny story.

I’m lucky to be able to share a sneaky peek of a couple of them for you here. Can you guess where the characters may be and what they are doing?!

As I’ve already mentioned, one of the key themes in this book is the importance of ‘wonder’ in magic, but hope and love also play powerful parts of weaving a truly magical trick. This book explores this key idea in multiple ways for the hope people have that the Blackpool Tower will return to its rightful home on the seafront, to the wonder when the seemingly impossible appears possible. I think these themes are also key in a good children’s book – whatever else happens, there needs to be hope.

There were lots of other things I enjoyed about this book too:

• Reading about events from multiple perspectives only added to the hilarity of the crazy plot line of budding magicians somehow vanishing themselves to Las Vegas.
• Getting a ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse at how various tricks might just work was fascinating. I have always been entirely confounded when presented with even the simplest of tricks so I loved getting a bit of a heads-up!
• The Wonder Brothers’ (and giant bunny, Queenie’s) wonderful friendship and total belief in each other.
• TRUST. THE. DREAM!

Jo.

*Many thanks to Macmillan Children’s Books for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour*