Magic tricks where something changes

What a transformation is

In a transformation one thing turns into another: a solid pencil goes rubbery, an arrow flips round, juice changes colour. Some of these are illusions your eyes make, and some are kitchen science that looks exactly like magic.

The science ones are worth explaining afterwards, once the gasp has happened, because the explanation is a second surprise. Each Potion Lab trick has the science on its page in a child's words, and a potion is always for looking at, never for drinking. The illusions are best left unexplained: the pencil only goes rubbery while nobody knows why.

By level, 7 Apprentice (works the first try) and 3 Conjurer (a little practice). They come off 5 shelves of the shop, most from The Potion Lab (4) and The Everyday Shelf (3). What you need most often: kitchen things (5), a cup or glass (3), paper (2), and 1 trick needs nothing at all. 1 trick has a step a grown-up does (something hot or a bright light), and 1 trick carries the choking note for brothers and sisters under 4. The quickest to learn is The Rubber Pencil (1 minute); the longest is The Loop of Mystery (15 minutes).

Every trick there is falls into one of eight kinds. How magicians do a transformation is in our post on the eight secrets behind every magic trick.