This, my friends, is a fine work of literature. I’m sure most of you
remember these things from your youth…they retail for RM 0.10 (that’s
a scant 10 cents, though it was a large sum when I was in the target
age group). They come in a variety of cliched incarnations like “Rocky
Stallone” (shown above) to “Desperately Seeking Susan” (the Madonna
film) for the ones amongst us who has started to “feel funny” towards
girls. 😉
The instructions for the use of this book is fairly
straightforward…basically, you use a pencil or a coin to reveal the
pre-printed (but invisible, thus the word “magic” in “Magic Book”)
images.
Anyway, the images are not invisible per se when you hold it
sideways against a light, but normally, you won’t be able to see it
until you shade it with a pencil or use a coin to rub the pages.
Here’s an example of using a pencil to shade:
The best technique is to run the pencil sideways to get maximum
shadage (if there’s such a word, reading these magic books does not
improve linguistic capabilities, obviously ;)).
This is the finished page. It depicts some scene in Rocky (the movie).
Here’s an example of using a coin to reveal the images:
It’s important not to rub the coin too hard against the paper, as
this can result in tearage (there goes my vocabulary again, curse you
magic book) or if too much pressure is applied, the picture would not
come out at all.
This is the finished example of using a coin. It also depicts a scene from the movie.
Now the funny thing about these books is – there’s only one or two
pages with what the cover suggests it contains. The bulk remainder
consists of images of generic robots and other stuff that presumably
appeals to boys.
Interesting stuff, I tell you. It’ll keep you occupied for…er,
seconds. We were trying hard to finish the book once the nostalgic
factor wore off. I never did bother with coloring the images when I was
young, I just wanted to make them show. Books are good for you – start
reading young! 😉
