I wish I could like the title of this book because everything else about it is splendid. The highly original illustrations with a hint of cubism are made up of collages of nuts and bolts, screws, tin cans, cheese graters, lengths of pipe, buttons, fabric, newsprint - all manner of bits and pieces put together in amazing and often beautiful ways. The wizard lives in a castle up 17,209 steps, but the climb is worth it because the wizard can 'bring you your innermost wish'. His assistant is a sad, blue man who never smiles and whom the villagers call ugly. He is ashamed of his looks, but the wizard can't help him because 'his shame is only the triumph of the mirror'. One day when the wizard is away, his assistant finds his Red Book of Spells and, disasterously, asks the book to make him handsome. All the words fly out of the book, and when the assistant tries to replace them, they go back in the wrong places. When the wizard returns, he can't understand why his spells won't work. His assistant finally confesses what he has done, and it is only when he can learn to laugh at his own reflection in the mirror and become 'the blue man with the big smile' that the magic book rights itself. Often funny, the deeper layers of meaning, plus the wonderfully detailed illustrations, will make this a book to pour over again and again.