First published in Great Britain 2017
by Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Published by arrangement with Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group inc., New York, New York, USA
Text and inside illustrations copyright © 2017 Neil Patrick Harris
Story illustrations by Lissy Marlin
How-to illustrations by Kyle Hilton
The moral rights of the author and illustrators have been asserted
First e-book edition 2017
ISBN 978 1 4052 9033 3
Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1837 0
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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To Gideon and Harper,
who misfit together perfectly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FIVE—one less than six
SIX—one more than five
SEVEN—six plus one equals
EIGHT—rhymes with fate
NINE—the number between eight and ten
TEN—the highest number in a deck of cards
ELEVEN—looks like two lines. Or two lowercase Ls, which could be confusing. For example, this is two lowercase Ls: ll. Looks like this 11, right? Confusing
TWELVE—also known as a dozen
THIRTEEN—oddly called “a baker’s dozen”. Always wondered why bakers get one more
FOURTEEN—the fourteenth chapter
FIFTEEN—ten plus half of ten
SIXTEEN—this one is sweet
SIXTEEN BILLION—(gotcha!) I wanted to be sure that you’re reading closely
SEVENTEEN—six more than nine, multiplied by ten, plus three, then divided by nine
EIGHTEEN—one more than seventeen
NINETEEN—the number missing from this representation of pi 3.141592653589793238462 643383279502884__71693
TWENTY—the second to last (chapter, I mean)
TWENTY-ONE—the last one
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
(* This is just a clever word for “Greetings!”)
Do you believe in magic? Hi there. Yes, I’m talking to you. Well, do you? Do you believe in magic?
If you’re anything like the boy in this book, you might say no. But I assure you, there is magic all around you. It’s true. Don’t believe me? Look into my eyes and tell me you don’t see magic!
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiimiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiigiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiciiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
See what I did there? Eyes . . . ‘i’s . . .
(You can stop laughing. I wasn’t that funny, was I ?)
But let’s be serious for a moment.
Magic can mean different things to different people. For some, it is pulling a rabbit from a top hat or sawing a person in half and then (hopefully) putting them back together again. For others, magic is a crisp autumn’s day or a tender hug from a loved one. For me, magic can be a story, a game, a puzzle, or a surprise that takes my breath away in a single, furious gulp.
You see, magic comes in all shapes and sizes and colours and tastes and smells and feelings. Magic may even come in the shape of a book – perhaps the very one you’re holding now. Or not. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
But sometimes you might have a hard time remembering to seek out the magic in the world, just like the boy in this book. You might be too busy twirling candy floss or too distracted by birds sitting on the windowsill or too tired from organising the attic to notice – but I assure you, magic does exist. You just have