Neil Patrick Harris

The Magic Misfits


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      First published in Great Britain 2017

      by Egmont UK Limited

      The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

      Published by arrangement with Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group inc., New York, New York, USA

      Text and inside illustrations copyright © 2017 Neil Patrick Harris

      Story illustrations by Lissy Marlin

      How-to illustrations by Kyle Hilton

      The moral rights of the author and illustrators have been asserted

      First e-book edition 2017

      ISBN 978 1 4052 9033 3

      Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1837 0

       www.egmont.co.uk

      A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

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       To Gideon and Harper,

       who misfit together perfectly

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      TABLE OF CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       FOUR—one more than three

       FIVE—one less than six

       SIX—one more than five

       SEVEN—six plus one equals

       EIGHT—rhymes with fate

       NINE—the number between eight and ten

       TEN—the highest number in a deck of cards

       ELEVEN—looks like two lines. Or two lowercase Ls, which could be confusing. For example, this is two lowercase Ls: ll. Looks like this 11, right? Confusing

       TWELVE—also known as a dozen

       THIRTEEN—oddly called “a baker’s dozen”. Always wondered why bakers get one more

       FOURTEEN—the fourteenth chapter

       FIFTEEN—ten plus half of ten

       SIXTEEN—this one is sweet

       SIXTEEN BILLION—(gotcha!) I wanted to be sure that you’re reading closely

       SEVENTEEN—six more than nine, multiplied by ten, plus three, then divided by nine

       EIGHTEEN—one more than seventeen

       NINETEEN—the number missing from this representation of pi 3.141592653589793238462 643383279502884__71693

       TWENTY—the second to last (chapter, I mean)

       TWENTY-ONE—the last one

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

       ABOUT THE AUTHOR

       Back series promotional page

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       (* This is just a clever word for “Greetings!”)

      Do you believe in magic? Hi there. Yes, I’m talking to you. Well, do you? Do you believe in magic?

      If you’re anything like the boy in this book, you might say no. But I assure you, there is magic all around you. It’s true. Don’t believe me? Look into my eyes and tell me you don’t see magic!

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      See what I did there? Eyes . . . ‘i’s . . .

      (You can stop laughing. I wasn’t that funny, was I ?)

      But let’s be serious for a moment.

      Magic can mean different things to different people. For some, it is pulling a rabbit from a top hat or sawing a person in half and then (hopefully) putting them back together again. For others, magic is a crisp autumn’s day or a tender hug from a loved one. For me, magic can be a story, a game, a puzzle, or a surprise that takes my breath away in a single, furious gulp.

      You see, magic comes in all shapes and sizes and colours and tastes and smells and feelings. Magic may even come in the shape of a book – perhaps the very one you’re holding now. Or not. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

      But sometimes you might have a hard time remembering to seek out the magic in the world, just like the boy in this book. You might be too busy twirling candy floss or too distracted by birds sitting on the windowsill or too tired from organising the attic to notice – but I assure you, magic does exist. You just have