The Trick

‘Eric, are you ready to travel to a place you’ve never been before?’ Mathew Masters asked, loud enough for the whole audience to hear. ‘Are you ready to do something truly magical? Are you ready, Eric, to vanish not somewhere, but Elsewhere?’ Where do you go when you disappear? Or, rather, when you are `disappeared’. Eric is about to find out when a school trip to a magic show takes an unexpected turn.

This playful story mixes the mundane and the fantastical, as Eric is given an amazing choice: to go back to his old life of school, his so-called mates and being kept awake by his baby sister, or to take a step into the unknown. *Help Key Stage 3 students move from Level 3a to Level 4c in reading. *Support comprehension with the striking, age-appropriate illustrations.

*Encourage shared and guided reading using the ready-made tasks and discussion points on the activity pages at the back of the book.