Frankie and Maya are in the audience of the town magic show. Frankie had read all kinds of magic books in preparation for the show, even the hard ones. Then, Frankie and Maya practice a few magic tricks of their own before preforming them in front of their families. “In a lot of ways, magic was like inventing. There was a lot of science behind magic tricks. Magicians often came up with new tricks, and they had to test and retest them, like when inventors designed inventions.” (19) In true story book fashion this is leading up to the school’s talent show and Frankie wants to preform a magic act with Maya as her assistant. When the two go to audience, Maya has such stage fright the trick does not work. Mr. Winklesmith, at the magic shop, advises Frankie if you cannot get Maya’s hands to stop shaking, figure out how to do it with hands shaking. Frankie will use her inventor skills so Maya will be able to help with the trick no matter how much her hands shake. Frankie does not reinvent the wheel. She builds upon the apparatus her kindergarten buddy uses, in class, to hold the playing cards needed for their math game. Once Frankie’s new device works for the magic trick, Frankie adds glitter and magical glitz to it. In the mean time, Maya has learned a new mantra from their friend Ravi, “I’m going to be fine.” Repeating it over and over and over again.

Frankie and Maya’s magic tricks are a big success at the school talent show. And two of Frankie’s former teachers ask her to make them the same device for use in their their classrooms.

After the story, there are two sections to help with STEAM /STEM projects. The first one is “The Design Process- Something Old into Something New” and the second one is “Your Turn to Be the Inventor”. Both are child friendly bits of advise on how to get the inventive juices running.