The Vanishing Trick by Jenni Spangler
Illustrated by Chris Mould
Published by Simon and Schuster £6.99.
ISBN: 9781 4711 9037 7
Published: 30th April 2020
295 pages
Author’s contact details:
@JenniSpangler1
Illustrator’s contact details:
@chrismouldink
Publisher’s website:
@simonschusterUK
Under 100 characters book review:
Victorian orphan, captured by a medium, wades through the murky pit of magic and lies that surrounds him and his friends.
The first line:
It wasn’t a sin to steal if you only took forgotten things.
The key characters:
- Leander (an orphan)
- Madame Pinchbeck (a travelling medium)
- Felix (he plays the violin at Madame Pinchbeck’s séances)
- Charlotte (she works for Madame Pinchbeck)
- Lord Litchfield (owns the house where Leander used to work and live before he became an orphan)
My review:
Instantly, you warm to Leander and his terrible plight – you feel frustrated and angry at the life he lives at the beginning of the story, and like him, you hope that Madame Pinchbeck (what a great name), ‘the clairvoyant, medium, spiritualist. Miracle worker,’ treats him to the good life. But deep down, you know, and Leander knows, that it can’t be true. No matter how nice she is, that she feeds him gives him a bed and a job (that he turns out to be quite good at). Along for the ride (but why?) are two other children (Charlotte and Felix) that disappear with a flick of Pinchbeck’s fingers. What are their reasons for being here? Leander slowly finds out, and the finger numbing race to free themselves, and others, begins in earnest. Each character is carefully constructed and fully rounded, with a back story that is slowly leaked throughout the pages. I found my emotions swaying this way and that, alongside Leander, as he struggles to know who to trust and who to believe, and what to believe, in this cold Victorian world of magic, death and destruction. The twists and turns in the plot are well controlled and exciting; at one point I did think that the same desperate trouble to free themselves was perhaps going on a bit too long, but it was fresh new turn of events, and it kept my interest right to the end of the story.
How could it be used in school?
(SPOILER ALERT!)
All ideas are linked to the National Curriculum
CORE SUBJECTS
ENGLISH:
During the Victorian era, there were many spiritualists working the homes of the bereaved. It would be fun to research them and then write a recount from two different points of view – what did the spiritualist see when they went to the family home, and what did the members of the family see when the spiritualist did their performance. This would be great fun to act out first, talk about different people’s points of view and link to the séances that are described in the book.
I would also like to put spiritualism on trial. There were many court cases at that time, with some very famous people believing what happened and some very passionate people on the other side as well. You could take a medium to court, re enact all the different things that people might say, and then write either a balanced argument for the cause or a passion persuasive piece for either side to be presented in the courtroom!
MATHEMATICS:
You could look into creating recipes for magic potions and then talking about the ratio and proportion of the different items used.
There is a lot of mathematics used in card tricks, such as number reading, and the children could look at the percentages of different numbers of cards and how this can help you succeed in card games.
I wonder how far Felix has travelled with Madame Pinchbeck looking for his brother – perhaps there is a way to estimate the number of miles they have travelled using evidence from the texts.
SCIENCE:
Rats are one of the themes that starts to appear throughout the book and at the end! KS2 children need to learn about life cycles, and you could focus, not just on the human life cycle, but also compare this to a rat’s life cycle. The children don’t age, but this could link to a lesson based on the human life cycle, and how old humans will be able to get to.
Children in KS2 need to learn about different mechanisms and this could lead to a DT/Science/STEM project to design a special trick that Madame Pinchbeck could use at one of her séances. She and Felix developed a magic candle that flicks out at a particular moment, as if a ghost has blown it out. Using pulleys and/or gears and/or levers what could the children design and then evaluate?
Year 6 children need to learn about micro-organisms and what better place to see this in action, than at a grave yard! In the story, the children have to dig up a body in a grave yard – what amazing micro-organisms are at work when they do this? Could you do this, on a smaller scale, in the classroom? Please approach this idea cautiously, as religious feelings need to be taken into account.
FOUNDATION SUBJECTS
ART AND DESIGN:
The amazing design work of Chris Mould should be looked at for Art lessons, and children could try to replicate his ideas, or their own ideas based on his design in different medium – clay, paint, charcoal, pencil.
DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY:
Designing a magic trick – see the Science section.
HISTORY:
The story is set in the Victorian times, and even though this era is no longer strictly on the National Curriculum, if your school is located in an area with key historical Victorian sites, you might like to focus on this topic as you are able to teach how ‘several aspects of national history are reflected in the locality’.
If you liked this, you might like to try reading:
- Sophie Wills
- Sita Brahmachari
- DM Potter
Where I received the book:
Toppsta
Kinkajousreadtoo 
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