Using mirrors, lighting, shadows, and simple props, the photographer who gave us the I Spy books and last year's extraordinary A Drop of Water Booklist 997 Top of the List for Young Nonfiction, has produced a stunning picture book of optical illusions. With crystal-clear photographs, he creates a series of scenes that fool the eye and the brain. Objects placed on a mirror seem to float in space, a triangle appears to move in three different directions, and a small Roman soldier guards a strange structure with columns that seem to change shape and decrease in number. These and other illusions are accompanied by text that not only describes what is happening but also gives hints about how the tricks are done. A full explanation of each illusion is provided at the end. The large format and clear pictures make this perfect for using with a small group, and even readers older than the target audience will enjoy the challenge of these examples of trompe l'oeil. (Reviewed August 1998)

Wick's elegant yet bold style of photography is ideally suited for the task of visual deception. The illusions range from simple mirror and geometric paradoxes to Escher-like visual trickery. Paired with each full-page color photo are well-matched descriptions that point the observer to key elements of the illusions. The book provides scientific concepts that are rigorous without diminishing the intrigue and fun.

This challenging book of optical illusions from Wick (A Drop of Water, 1997, etc.) will leave some readers gasping in awe, and others befuddled, as they ought to be by such visual trickery. Stunning photographs tease with false perceptions, shadowplays, and mirror tricks. Every photograph is a set piece (many of them sporting the same aesthetic sensibility of Wick and Jean Marzollo's I Spy books), and the opposite page asks readers various questions about what they're seeing. The very best pictures are patterned on the classic M.C. Escher drawings, paradoxes of impossible triangles, cubes, and other structures. Wick provides answers, ably explaining the perceptual twists, and adds an intelligent (and, for flummoxed readers, compassionate) closing: "The variety of ways individuals experience optical illusions is in itself an interesting area of inquiry, but it's important to keep in mind that why such differences occur is not fully understood—even by experts—and that each reader should experience the book at his or her own pace." A book to elicit appreciative murmurs at story hours, and return visits for closer looks. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-10)

Gr 4-8-Communication between eye and mind is disoriented with a series of colorful photos of meticulously chosen or carefully constructed objects painstakingly arranged and ingeniously photographed from extremely precise angles. Challenges are presented both in those often-frustrating photos and in the simply written text, with the "illusions" revealed on subsequent pages by having readers change their viewpoint, or in consultation with a series of "solutions" and explanations at the back of the book. In a conclusion, youngsters are reassured that not everyone can "see" every illusion, and that this work is meant as "...an entertaining introduction to the mysteries of visual perception..." and not an "intelligence test." Highly sophisticated despite its appearance of colorful ingenuousness, this new endeavor from the creator of A Drop of Water (Scholastic, 1997) will prove engagingly demanding to those who can "see" 3-D op art in a trice, and annoyingly exacting to those who cannot. Stimulating, if frustrating, and certainly not in the usual stripe of books on optical illusions.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY