Wizard Science: Labcraft Wizards: Magical Projects and Experiments by John Austin

For aspiring young wizards, the last quarter of the year offers two theaters of action to show off their skills--Halloween magic shows and upcoming science fairs--and this handbook of potions and spellbinding physical phenomena offers would-be Harrys and Hermiones step-by-step directions for mastering potions and spells without the nefarious supervision of Severus Snape or Horace Slughorn.

John Austin's Labcraft Wizards: Magical Projects and Experiments (Chicago Review Press, 2016) is a manual of magico-science illusions which begins at the beginning with instructions for the making of the necessary magical accouterments--wands, hourglasses, and a whiz-bang atmospheric enhancer, the dazzling Smoke Ring Launcher which also demonstrates the principal of the toroidel vortex.

From there author Austin moves on props such as Ogre Snot, a colloidal gelatin-in-a-jar magical cure-all (labels provided in the appendix), Glycerin Smoke,  wispy and evocative for spell-casting, and the ever-popular Cloud in a Jar, which opens to a miniature storm.  It's helpful for the young spellmeister to have a few other easily concocted props around. Some projects, like the Dragon Egg, require only a raw egg, vinegar, and perhaps a drop or two of food coloring, depending upon the color of the dragon in mind, a simple project which demonstrates the action of acid upon calcium and the principal of osmosis and also produces an egg that will bounce.  Others, such as Hot Ice, the Two-Liter Tornado, and Frozen Snowstorm, require some time and skill to carry off and demonstrate more advanced scientific principles.

All experiments/tricks make use of inexpensive common household substances. A few require having on hand substances like the spice shelf staple cream of tartar, the presence of which depends on whether Mom makes meringue often, or an aerosol hair or freshener spray.  Meticulous attention is paid to making homemade apparatus from household objects like coat hangers, ballpoint pens and pencils, masking tape, jars and plastic bottles, with appropriate safety warnings for using heat or sharp tools.

When Halloween is over, when Christmas trees come down, and school holidays end, there comes the sometimes-dreaded Science Project Season and the subsequent scramble for helpful handbooks for those assignments which profit from step-by-step, illustrated instructions, and Labcraft Wizards: Magical Projects and Experiments, provides plenty of intriguing projects with a clever hook--wizardly science. Says School Library Journal, "Use this spellbinding selection to introduce students to science through play and for book club activities with a magical or fantasy theme."

The Great Escape! Hurry Up, Houdini!" (Magic Tree House #50) by Mary Pope Osborne

Dear Jack and Annie,
Thank you for successfully completing your first mission to find a secret of greatness. Now on your new mission, I would like you to  learn a second secret--this time, from the Great Houdini.
--Merlin

"Oh, man! The Great Houdini!" said Jack "He could escape from anything! Chains, ropes, locks, handcuffs, prisons! He was amazing!"

"Was he a criminal?" asked Annie.

"No, a performer--the greatest escape artist who ever lived!" said Jack.

It's the mid-summer in Frog Creek, and Jack and Annie find Merlin's note in the Magic Tree House a welcome escape from routine--a chance to take a time-travel mini-vacation to Coney Island in 1908 and meet the famous magician Harry Houdini.

The tree house comes down in a curious tree in the Japanese Tea Garden, where Jack and Annie discover themselves dressed in turn-of-the century knee pants with watch pocket for Jack and a jaunty sailor dress for his sister, with pockets full of pennies packed with plenty of purchasing power. The ever-conscientious Jack wants to buy tickets for Houdini's nine o'clock show right away, but the excitable Annie is enchanted by the thousands of tiny electric lights stung everywhere, and she just has to try a Coney Island hot dog, a real waffle cone, and some of Coney Island's famous rides. In a bit of literary irony, the sophisticated time and space travelers Annie and Jack prove a hard sell for the carnival ride shills:

"Trip to the Moon!" a young man shouted to them.

"Been there!" Jack said. "Done that!" added Annie

"Submarine ride! Departing now for the North Pole?"

"Been there!" said Annie. "Done that!" said Jack.

"Kansas Cyclone!" a girl shouted. "Come inside and be blown away!"

"Been there, done that, too!" said Jack. Annie laughed.

Still, thanks to Annie, by the time they arrive at the theater, their pockets are lighter, except for a vial of Merlin's Magic Mist, which enables them to be the world's best at anything. But, as Jack had feared, Houdini's show is already sold out, and the restive crowd outside is threatening a riot because the magic act set to open for Houdini seems to have absconded with the box office receipts and disappeared. How can the kids get inside and meet Harry Houdini to discover his own secret of greatness?

But the resourceful and daring Annie has a plan. Fast-talking her way in to see the stage manager, she sells him on the two of them as an magic act, Jolly Jack and the Amazing Annie, as a replacement opening act. A whiff from the magic vial for each of them turns Jack and Annie into the world's best magicians for an hour and they dazzle the crowd, and once inside the theater, they are sure that, even minus magical prowess, they have the power to complete their mission to discover Houdini's secret of greatness.

But surprisingly the secret doesn't come from Houdini himself, in Mary Pope Osborne's just-published-this-week Magic Tree House #50: Hurry Up, Houdini! (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2013), illustrated as always by the esteemed veteran artist Sal Murdocca. With this fiftieth title in the amazing Magic Tree House series, Osborne displays that she still has the wizardry to transform beginning readers into chapter book readers and whik them away on a summery theme-park mission with her potent magical mix of history, fantasy time-travel, and adventure that never fails to amaze and delight readers and to make the best-selling lists as well.

As is the tradition with Osborne's fiction books, this one is accompanied by a new non-fiction companion book, Magic Tricks from the Tree House: A fun companion to Magic Tree House #50: Hurry Up, Houdini! (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2013) with magic skills for those would-be Jolly Jacks and Amazing Annies among the beginning chapter book set.