‘This Book Made Me Do It’

You are a kid of many talents.

You can make your own breakfast, pack your own lunch, and whip up a mean mac-&-cheese for dinner. You know a stegosaurus from a diplodocus, you can tell a king snake from a king cobra, and you know their habitats, too. You can pop wicked wheelies on your bike, whistle between your fingers, recite poetry from memory and burp on command. 

But there are some things you don’t know how to do, and you want to learn. That’s why you need “This Book Made Me Do It” by the folks at DK. With the step-by-step picture instructions here, you can do almost anything.

So let’s start with your favorite: food. What’s the easiest way to cook it outdoors? Can you cook food without fire? With “This Book,” you’ll find out how and you’ll learn to make an ice bowl, ice cream, popsicles, smoothies, tomato sauce, damper bread, and how to find water to clean up the mess you’ve made while cooking.

If you love animals, “This Book” will help you keep ants, raise caterpillars and farm worms. You’ll also learn how to dig a pond for your pet frog, how to feed your pet moths, how to cook for birds, and how to know what your pet owl had for dinner (hint: it’s disgusting).

Can your friends walk through paper, levitate, trick their bodies, lift fingerprints, spot a liar, land an airplane, or escape from handcuffs?  No? Well, you can, after you read “This Book.”

But wait. You’re an adventuresome kid, right? So can you escape a shark or an alligator, make a compass from a leaf, navigate by the stars, or improvise a float to avoid drowning? Could you build a fish trap or perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)?  When you’re done with “This Book,” you’ll be able to do all those things!

Or let’s say you’re a broke kid and the holidays are coming. Not to worry. With “This Book,” you can make a hummingbird feeder for your grandparents, a piñata for your brother, friendship bracelets for your BFFs, fingerless gloves for mom, a survival bracelet for dad, and origami animals for your sister. And when you’re done, you can say “‘This Book Made Me Do It’ and I did it myself.”

There are a hundred reasons to love “This Book Made Me Do It,” starting with a delightful surprise for “poor readers:” they’ll have no problem understanding the follow-along picture instructions that accompany the easy-to-understand text.

The activities in “This Book” are widely varied in both subject and level of difficulty, and include warnings for grown-up help when applicable. Babysitters will want it because many of the projects are simple enough to teach to small kids, while others will challenge older children. That means that if you get “This Book” for your 10-year-old, your 16-year-old won’t feel stupid glancing through it.

Meant for middle-schoolers, “This Book” wouldn’t be out of place on a high-schooler’s bookshelf. “This Book Made Me Do It” will, in fact, make any talented kid smile.

• The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 and never goes anywhere without a book.