Now You See It, Now You Don't

Title: Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Amazing World of Optical Illusions
Drawings: Constance Ftera
Author: Seymour Simon
Publisher: Morrow Junior Books
Publication City: New York, NY
Publication Date: 1976,1998
ISBN: 0-688-16152-9

Summary

The Amazing World of Optical Illusions is created in the book by Seymour Simon. Simon shows the reader how optical illusions are created and how the reader can create their own illusions. He also explains why exactly optical illusions happen, and how our eye plays tricks on us. Illusions happen in everyday circumstances, but the readers do not realize that what they are seeing is actually an illusions. There is a whole chapter devoted to illusions in art. What some people may consider art technique, Seymour considers an illusion. He uses MC Esher as an example of illusion in art, in addition to Jacob Van Ruisdael. The book is interactive giving readers many experiments to try.

Review

Most people are familiar with the saying "your eyes are playing tricks on you." Seymour Simon explains how your eye actually does play tricks with you. Optical illusions are a tricky thing. They do not always happen the way they are supposed to happen. This happened many times to me as I was reading the book. Simon would point out how something looked as though it bent outward towards us, but my perception was that it bent away from me. Simon discusses how the optical illusion occurs and gives the reader many examples to try. Students will love the chance to get out of the seats and "trick" their eyes.

The illustrations are what brings the book to life. The examples given are fun to look at, and helps the reader understand the concepts given in the book. Without the illustrations the book would make no sense to the reader.

Simon presents the information in a way that is exciting to the student, if they are very interested in illusions. After awhile, if the student is only interested in the pictures and looking at optical illusions they might become bored. The hands on activities are nice, but if one is not interested in art, the book becomes a bit tedious. The book is written toward the audience of upper elementary students, and asks many questions of the reader, in addition to the experiments given.

Professional Reviews

From Booklist
Gr. 3^-6. One of the clearest and most interesting discussions of optical illusions ever written for children, this was first published in 1976 as The Optical Illusion Book. The new format allows space to increase the size of the illustrations, making them clearer and more effective. Though the text of the new edition remains substantially the same, improvements to the volume include a more attractive book design and more dynamic jacket. An appealing choice for school and public libraries. Carolyn Phelan

Book Description
This classic book on optical illusions explores dozens of visual riddles about distance, depth, brightness, contrast, and color. Newly designed and filled with more than eighty illustrations -- plus eight full-color pages of optical illusions -- Now You See It, Now You Don't lets youngsters see for themselves why they can't always believe their eyes!

Connections

Have students create their own book of optical illusions. Explain the concept of a tessellation and how that can become an illusion itself.
Have students perform the experiments, using an adult when needed, and have them record their findings in a journal. Have them explain what they found, and how they felt about their findings.
Take a trip to an art exhibit appropriate for the age group and have the students record illusions they see in the art in a journal. They can even decorate the front with their own illusion.