Before the show you seal a prediction in an envelope. Somebody picks any three-digit number, does some sums, and turns to the page and word their answer points to in a real book. You open the envelope, and the word on your paper is the word they found.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 15 minutes to learn
🔮 Mind reading
🎒 Ages 10+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Open the book at page 108, count to the 9th word of the page, write it on paper and seal it in the envelope.
They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.
How do I put on a magic show?
Pick four to six tricks you know really well. Open with something quick and visual, put a trick with a helper in the middle, give the whole room something to join in with, and finish on your very best one. Then bow and stop. Ten to fifteen minutes is a whole show.
Before the show you seal a prediction in an envelope. Somebody picks any three-digit number, does some sums, and turns to the page and word their answer points to in a real book. You open the envelope, and the word on your paper is the word they found. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 10 to 13 (grades 5th–7th), takes 15 minutes to learn, and needs 4 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
The sums always come out at 1089, so they always open page 108 and count to the 9th word. You looked it up before the show.
What you need
A chapter book with at least 110 pages
A sheet of paper
A wooden pencil
An envelope
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Open the book at page 108, count to the 9th word of the page, write it on paper and seal it in the envelope.
How to do it
Put the sealed the envelope where everyone can see it, and hand over the book.
Ask them to write any three-digit number whose first digit is at least 2 bigger than its last.
Ask them to write it backwards underneath and take the smaller from the bigger.
Now write that answer backwards underneath it, and add the two together.
Say: the first three digits are a page, and the last digit is a word on it.
They open the book at that page, count to that word, and read it out.
Open the envelope slowly, unfold your paper, and show the same word.
Magic words to say
“Books remember everyone who has read them. This one remembered you were coming, and it told me which word you would choose. I wrote it down this morning.”
Pro tips
Use a book from your own shelf, and let them check it's an ordinary book first.
Let them use a calculator if they like. The answer is still 1089.
Don't do the 1089 Trick for the same people: they'd spot the number.
If something goes wrong
If they get a different total, it's a slip in the sums. Say "let's check together" and go through it with them: it always lands on 1089 in the end.
Safety notes
Sit at a table.
No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.
Why it works
Taking a three-digit number from its reverse leaves 99 times the difference of the first and last digits: 198, 297, 396, 495, 594, 693, 792 or 891. Each of those added to its own reverse makes 1089, so every starting number leads to page 108, word 9.
What kind of trick is this?
🔮 Prediction. You knew all along, or you read their mind. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.
The skill it teaches:The big finish. End on your best one, then stop. Perform it and it counts towards the Mind Reader badge.
Questions about the book test
How do magicians read minds?
They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.
How do I put on a magic show?
Pick four to six tricks you know really well. Open with something quick and visual, put a trick with a helper in the middle, give the whole room something to join in with, and finish on your very best one. Then bow and stop. Ten to fifteen minutes is a whole show.