Optical Illusions by DK Publishers

Optical Illusions contains 50 optical illusions to enjoy while learning about how the eyes and brain work.

This is such an awesome book. It's written for pre-teens (7-12 year olds), but can be enjoyed by the whole family. Not only do you get to see some terrific illusions, you also get to learn about how they work and how your eyes and brain see them.

The book contains a few classic illusions that I've seen before, but it also has a number of new-to-me ones. I haven't seen some of the classic ones for awhile and it was nice to revisit them and learn more about them. The new-to-me ones were amazing and fun to try out and read about.

I'm a huge fan of books that come with moveable and removable pieces. I know that the removable ones can become lost or damaged, but I still like them. This book has only two pieces that can be completely removed from the book, so it should be fairly easy to keep track of them. The moveable pieces include: pop-ups, pullout tabs, and other moveable parts to help the reader enjoy the illusions. These are all pretty cool!

There's even a section at the back to build your own illusion. The instructions are pretty straightforward (if you read them correctly, which apparently I can't do) and there are no extra tools required. It really well constructed and should last a long time if it's put together (and put away) carefully. It looked pretty cool, but I couldn't get it to work, like the instructions said it would. My only guess is that I constructed it incorrectly or I'm a dunce. ;)

The cover of the book is one of my favourite parts. It's been sitting on my desk and I've been playing with it for days (ever since it arrived). It's sort of hard to explain. Even though the cover is flat, it appears to have dimension. Both the title and circles seem to pop out at the reader. I guess it's 3D, but there are no special glasses required. It's so awesome.

The whole book is well constructed with thick reinforced pages. This is especially important because of the moveable and removable parts. It should last a long time even if it's repeatedly played with. It might even last long enough to hand down to another child.

Highly recommended. This book would make a great Christmas present for a pre-teen, who can then share it with the rest of the family.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit DK's website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at DK Canada for this review copy.

Optical Illusions by DK Publishers, Dorling Kindersley (DK), ©2012. ISBN 9780756691891(Hardcover), 31p.