Gotcha!: 18 Amazing Ways to Freak Out Your Friends

Mystery Hunters

by David Acer, Stephen MacEachern (Illustrator)

A book full of knowledge and know-how, Gotcha! demystifies some age-old mysteries and shows kids that it's easy to be a master of illusion. Doubting Dave and the Mystery Hunters take readers behind the scenes of the world's oldest and coolest mysteries. Then they show kids how to re-create those mysteries to fool their friends. This interactive book is also full of interesting and bizarre background information on each mystery. With step-by-step instructions, easy-to-find materials (and sometimes no materials at all) kids * Hypnotize a friend * Turn a pencil into gold * Test their house for ghosts * Make Bigfoot prints * Make a fake UFO photo and video * Make their own lake monster video

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

David Acer is a Gemini-award-nominated writer and comedian who has done crazy things on dozens of television shows around the world, like protesting outside a train station dressed as a giant penny while inviting people to lie down on the tracks to “see how it feels,” and limping to the couch for a talkshow interview with a Denver Boot on his leg because he had “a few unpaid j-walking tickets.” He has appeared on a multitude of international specials (Sky One England’s The Secret World of Magic, NHK Japan’s F.I.S.M. 2000, Discovery’s Grand Illusions), a plethora of Canadian comedy classics (CBC’s Just For Laughs, CTV’s Comedy Now, CHCH’s Comedy at Club 54), and an array of American prime-time standards (A&E’s Comedy on the Road, ABC’s America’s Funniest People), not to mention live at The Riviera in Las Vegas, The Magic Castle in Hollywood, and 10 times at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. But younger viewers (and insomniacs) are more likely to recognize him as “Doubting Dave” from Discovery Kids' Mystery Hunters, which garnered him two Gemini nominations (the Canadian equivalent of the Emmys) for Best Writing in a Children’s Non-Fiction Series, and the publication of his spin-off book, “GOTCHA! 18 Amazing Ways to Freak Out Your Friends,” now a Canadian bestseller. Check out video clips, audio clips and more at www.davidacer.com.

Reviews

[Canadian Children's Book Centre]

Gotcha! Mystery Hunters: 18 Amazing Ways to Freak Out Your Friends presents the reader with a variety of ways to scare, shock and, most importantly, entertain themselves and friends alike. This book is based on the television series Mystery Hunters created by Jonathan Finkelstein and produced by YTV and Discovery Networks International. The text and illustrations are engaging, drawing the reader into the spectacular world of the supernatural while investigating some of the world’s strangest and interesting mysteries. David Acer provides the reader with a list of materials needed (if any) and simple step-by-step instructions to replicate the hoaxes. A great deal of background information is provided, not only to educate the reader but also to enrich the entire experience. This entertaining book contains an excellent blend of facts and fiction while showing the audience how to perform amazing feats that will surely shock their friends. The activities outlined in the text, such as ‘Make your own Bigfoot Prints’ and ‘Make a Crop Circle,’ are age appropriate and will appeal to a wide audience. A pleasurable read that will provide hours of enjoyment and activities the whole family can take part in.

Reviewed by Trevor J. Froates in Canadian Children's Book News
Winter 2009 VOL.32 NO.1

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appealingly designed book about unknown phenomena such as ESP, UFOs and Bigfoot. The book describes ways to fake the phenomena to "freak out your friends" and offers intelligent, balanced comments on whether each phenomenon may or not be actual.

Great for elementary- and middle-school fans of "weird stuff" and for getting the kids to think intelligently.