Optical Illusions

This is an interesting optical illusion book for both children and adults. It doesn't contain the usual illusions, but goes for ones presented in a unique manner. The illusions and the tricks are explained in the back of the book. A great book just to explore and enjoy.

amazing book my kids love dit

While there are undoubtedly some good illusions, some of them didn't work for me, perhaps because I was viewing as an e-book. This kind of book is much better in print, not least because it makes viewing the answers much easier. Sorry, this didn't really work that well as an e-book, and there were a few odd sentences (has this been translated into English?). As a print book it would be good for children and adults alike, although some of the words would need to be explained to children first (convergent, divergent, etc).

Back in my college days I took a lot of classes about cognition because I was really interested in learning how the brain worked. A lot of these courses had sections on optical illusions because they really illustrate the way the brain is wired, and some of the shortcuts it takes when processing the information we receive from the world around us.

Maybe that's why OPTICAL ILLUSIONS didn't work for me. Most of them were variations of illusions I'd been taught about in school, and I spent more time trying to "outdo" them than I did being wowed by them. (I am a contrarian by nature.) It could have gone both ways, and I was kind of hoping that this book would take the psychological approach.

It didn't.

Another thing that disappointed me was that the bottom of the pages were cut off in my e-galley. Since this meant a lot of the optical illusions were cropped, that meant that about 50% of them didn't work for me at all. I really hate it when this happens in my e-copies, especially when the illustrations are necessary to see when writing a well-rounded review.

Overall, OPTICAL ILLUSIONS was very disappointing.

2 out of 5 stars.

Optical Illusions, An Eye-Popping Extravaganza of Visual Tricks by Gianni A. Sarcone and Marie-Jo Waeber is a optical eye-full. When I started looking at the optical illusions, my first thought were, I have seen some of these before, but yet some are new. This book is filled with amazing pictures. My favorite puzzle is How to Become a Giant. This puzzle shows a man at one end of a hallway with column's and it looks like the man is extremely small in comparison with the column's. The next picture shows the man at the end of the hallway and he looks like a giant in comparison to the columns. The book shows you the illusion and then at the end of the book, it gives you the answer of why this illusion is possible. The only part I don't like is that the only reference to the answers is in the front of the book. I would like individual references on each page saying where the answer to the puzzle can be found. Otherwise this is a great book and I would recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

If you are interested in exploring a wide variety of optical illusions, this is probably the book for you! There are different categories of illusion and, much further in the book, explanations of the illusions including information on how they work. The range of illusions is impressive and the answers concerning how they work is detailed. On Net galley it was described as children's non-fiction and children will be fascinated by the illusions but they will need a very high reading ability to stand any chance of understanding most of the 'answers' explaining how the illusions work. The vocabulary used in some of the 'answers' includes relatively technical terms which most children (and some adults) will need simplifying and elaborating on to help develop their understanding, maybe the marketing teams need to change the age range to which this is being targeted? As a children's book I would only give this 3 stars (possibly being generous) because children will struggle to comprehend the answers but will enjoy the illusions . . . . for a teenage or adult audience it would have an extra star rating!

Lots of cool, mind blowing stuff in this book!

A nice selection of shape, color, and figure illusions with a test/experiment chapter at the end. Of course, people are variable and some illusions don’t work as well as others depending on who you are. I realize this is a book aimed at kids, but I would have liked a little more science in the explanations, or maybe just the explanations closer to the illusions. It will be easier to page back and forth to the “solutions” in a physical book, but it might have been nice to have the explanations illustrated a little more.

I was also surprised that there were no full-page illusions. If you’re going to make my eyes go buggy, go big!

This book is entertaining for all ages. I went through this with my 12 year old daughter and she loved it. There are several different types of illusions and questions to answer. This would be great for school aged children or even better on a long car ride to keep the little ones busy.

This is a very entertaining collection of optical illusions, full of pictures that will leave you scratching your head as you try to figure out how they've fooled you. Though I've seen many of these before online, they still entertain, and I think children will have open mouths as you go through the book together. There are loads of them, and it's the best optical illusion book I've come across.

I remember loving these optical illusions books as a kid. Gianni Sarcone and Marie-Jo Waeber have teamed up again in Optical Illusions: An Eye-Popping Extravaganza of Visual Tricks. Many of these are fresh takes on classic illusions. Some are wholly original, like this one:

Sarcone and Waeber classify the illusions in several chapters, and leave the explanations or solutions for the back of the book. Some of these I didn't quite get until after reading the solutions. I appreciated their explanations, especially as they discussed how the eye and brain analyze color and adjust for what we expect to see. You will be tempted to return to these, with a straight edge, a ruler, and other means to help your brain make sense of what you think you are seeing. Optical Illusions is a very interesting diversion.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!