Horten's Incredible Illusions by Lissa Evans falls under the genre realistic fantasy.  Stuart Horten is 10 years old, but looks younger.  Stuart finds clues to find his Great Uncle's long lost workshop, which was used for magic.  After he finds the workshop, Stuart finds some priceless magician's tricks.  In one of the tricks, he finds a metal star that can be used to go on an adventure in each of the tricks.  The tricks' names are Pharoah's Pyramid, The Reappearing Rose Bower, The Book of Peril, The Well of Wishes, The Arch of Mirrors, The Fan of Fantasticness, and The Cabinet of Blood.

My favorite trick was The Reappearing Rose Bower.  There is a bronze throne on the Reappearing Rose Bower.  When you pull a lever next to the throne twice, the throne goes inside the trick and turns upside down.  Another throne, that is already underneath hanging upside down, pops up while you're on the other side.  Another part of the book I like is when Stuart finds his Great Uncle's dog alive.  The dog is a whitish-grayish-haired dog with curly fur.  A reporter on a TV show that was interviewing Stuart accidentally fell into a puddle and everybody looked at the puddle.  Then everybody looked at the small dog.  Then the reporter screamed because it was dog pee.

This book is good for ages 7 and up.  I would love to go back and read Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms, the first book in the series, because I really enjoyed Horten's Incredible Illusions.  This book comes out on September 4th, 2012.  You can buy it on Amazon.com and from other major bookstores.


Thank you to the Sterling Publishing Co. for providing an advanced reading copy of this book for us to base this review upon.