Animagicals: Presto Chang-O, or A Book of Animal Magic by Edouard Manceau

Here you'll find a magic book

Where all's not what it seems.

PRESTO CHANGE-O

For when you turn each object round,

The unexpected will be seen.

Can YOU change a bowl of green salad into a turtle?

Or how about a little legerdemain to convert a hot air balloon into a rabbit?

In his hard-to-resist toy-and-movable-book, illustrator and designer Edouard Manceau offers some sturdy moving parts and a lot of artistry in a bit of bibliographic transforming. By moving a few jointed parts, a black cauldron becomes the perky raccoon on the cover. On another page, a rocket becomes a penguin "flying" through his underwater habitat. A fancy teapot transforms itself into elephant and back again, and a clock slips into the shape of an owl on its perch.

It's fun for young fingers and a treat for the eyes in Manceau's latest, Presto Change-O: A Book of Animal Magic (Chronicle Books, 2014), giving preschoolers a chance to work a little magic with their own fingertips.

For an absorbing lesson in shapes and their manipulation into basic graphic forms, try Edouard Manceau's delightful Windblown (Owlkids Books, 2013) with a little help from his invisible friend the wind (with downloadable, printable shapes for kids to experiment with)  here.