Customer Reviews

Hocus-Pocus Magical Cookbooks

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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I bought this book at the school book fair as a birthday gift. When I got home My kids would not hear of it. We have been making magical meals out of it ever since. They had the hocus pocus pancakes one morning and swore that they felt silly all day. I then took it to work to show to my clients and I had to go back to the book fair and order nine more! My kids are 9 and 7 they believe in magic! This book should be advertised so more people would see it.

I would highly recommend this book and anything else published by "Innovative Kids" My five year old daughter loves it and so does my nine year old son. The recipes are easy and fun with secret ingredients and magical "spells" that the kids can say as they wave the magic wand (provided) over the recipe they just made. The graphics are whimsical. This book is just really well thought out and original.

This book is just great! Recipes that actually produce yummy food, presented in a kid-oriented way that engages them.

The rest of us might tire a little of some of the extra efforts involved, but it's not directed to us! For the curious, let me explain:

On the inside of the front cover is a "wizard wheel". This wheel contains foods on the outside, measurements on the inside. The foods on the outside of the wheel are the magical words for the foods and their english equivalent. Each recipe contains atleast one magical word-identified food, and you use the wheel (matching up an indicator to the magical word you need identified, and reading across) to translate (but many times you can figure it out: kristalshayks is salt, for instance).
Alternative "magic" terms are also used for measurements, like beaker is 1 cup. Those are explained on page 4, and are not on the Wizard Wheel anywhere.

If you are the type of person who likes to jump right in to something and figure things out as you go, this could cause problems for you! You should really translate your entire recipe before you get started!

That said, there is plenty of silliness and wit for those looking for such things. It's a delight visually, and the overall tone is very warm and enticing.

Creative and engaging!

I LOVE this book! I first discovered it in the school library of the middle school I worked in. It comes with a magic wand and secret codes to make delicious, kid-friendly recipes. I bought the book for my nephew's 11th birthday. As a Harry Potter fan and burgeoning chef he loved it as much as the children in my school did. I had to search far and wide, since the book is out of print, to find a used version that had all the pieces included but it was well worth the effort. I wish the publishing company would re-release the title.

I loved that it had history and math facts as well as science experiments. This was a real learning tool as well as a cookbook.

My seven-year-old grandson thought this cook book was awesome, and we have prepared many of the recipes together. Even though, he could figure our the secret ingredient very quickly, he still enjoyed reading the recipe.