Looking back at the many, many Klutz books that have existed over the years, I have to wonder – did my family keep Klutz in business? We had SO MANY of these books! Science, crafts, magic, games, you name it, we had at least one in each category, if not more. But here’s the thing about many a Klutz book, the secret shame of many a child… you started a friendship bracelet, but never finished it. You did a couple card tricks, but didn’t learn any more. You made a couple things from clay, but then didn’t want to run out of the colors provided, and stopped.
Unless this is solely a phenomenon experienced in my own household? Did you ever get through a whole Klutz book? Maybe they banked on the fact that kids would only have enough interest to do one or two things from each book and then move on to the next, because they sure did churn them out. And you know what? They still do! Though they may be a bit different from the days of the ‘90s, if you wanna show the kids in your life the magic of Klutz, you can.
But for now, let’s take a look back at some of the most memorable Klutz books…
The book that started it all, this is one of the few books my family did not have in our repertoire. But if you ever want to learn to juggle, then Klutz has your back with this kit of bean bags and instruction booklet, which is still sold today.
Friendship bracelets were all the rage in the ’90s, and this Klutz book had so many different varieties you could make to give to all of your buddies. But to be honest, I started quite a few different bracelets and never finished them. Some of them were actually pretty complicated!
For the science-minded and eternally curious, the Explorabook was awesome. It has over 50 different activities, and the tools to do nearly all of them (a la that magnet attached on the side).
Now we’re getting to some truly vintage ’90s territory. Hair wraps were, weirdly, a thing back then. Who knows why, maybe because the friendship bracelet was such a fad that they were like heck, let’s make a friendship bracelet, but for your hair. Or maybe because every girl would have her hair in wraps after going on some fancy vacation. Either way, this Klutz book was there to make your hair wrap dreams come true.
If you were into card games, which honestly my friends and I seemed to be, then this Klutz book was for you. I can’t remember exactly what was in the original book that we owned, but the latest version has at least 20 games, some different tricks, and even how to build a house of cards, if you’re so inclined.
In junior high leadership class, we would often get separated into groups and go do projects together. What projects? Who knows! But, what we did do when working on these “projects” was braid each others’ hair. Was this Klutz book the inspiration? Who knows, but I was always sad that I never knew how to French braid. Clearly I didn’t have this book and its awesome scrunchies!
With a silk scarf and four other props, this Klutz book was all about how to do magic tricks. Klutz Press selected 31 tricks to include out of thousands and even claim one of the included tricks is the best in close-up magic — what a proclamation! While some of the Klutz books are clearly more geared toward girls, this one was more universal.
To be honest, this clay book was one of my favorites. It not only showed you how to make beads and create necklaces, but also how to make little clay animals, or clay food. Were these things useful in any way? No. But were they fun to make? Heck yes.
Were you a fan of Blues Traveler‘s John Popper and his harmonica jams, or did your grandpa have an old harmonica lying around that you thought was cool, but had no idea how to play? Not to worry, Klutz won’t give you a run-around with their book on how to play the harmonica.
Anytime you went to a fair and got your face painted, it was the coolest thing. Except fairs were few and far between — so what about the rest of the year? Klutz came to the rescue with their book on face painting, which had over 83 different designs.
If you couldn’t get enough of the magic in the original Klutz Book of Magic, they followed it up with another one specifically dedicated to Coin Magic. And not only that, they gave you a trick coin with the book as well — a double-headed quarter. Sneaky. Very sneaky.
If you were a true ’90s kid, you did not need this book to make one of these fortune tellers. But, if you were feeling less than creative, you could pick up this Klutz book that had complete fortune tellers ready to go with instructions on how to fold them up. The real test would be if you could still make a fortune teller today without looking it up!
The Buck Book seems like it might be for the more scientifically-minded, like it might be a factual book on the dollar bill and printing presses or something, but in fact it’s really just a book of origami where you happen to use a dollar bill to make your origami pieces. Nonetheless, I definitely had this book and definitely think I never took the dollar out of the pouch.
You see that little bead butterfly ring there on the cover of the book? I definitely made that butterfly – except, I’m pretty sure I then attached it to a bobby pin to put in my hair rather than actually finishing it as a ring. A combo of the butterfly clips and beads that were so popular of the ’90s, how ingenious. I’m pretty sure I finished making at least one actual ring from this book, though, so that was something.
I guess if your mom was really into knitting, she might get you this book on how to make potholders to see if you might be into it too? I’m pretty sure I made a few unfinished potholders in my day, with some wacky bright color combinations, but this one was definitely not at the top of the pile.
Do any of you remember these being called boondoggles? For real, though, everyone loved to make these plastic… thingies. I guess maybe Klutz made up the name boondoggle for whatever these were – often keychains or lanyards, maybe a bracelet or a choker if you really wanted to go for it.
Now, everyone already knew how to do the basic cat’s cradle with a loop of string, but this book was all about variations, including the Jacob’s Ladder and even the Eiffel Tower, which gets your mouth involved in the string action
- Klutz Press started in Palo Alto, California in 1977 with the publication of the very first book: Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which came with juggling beanbags to learn. The second book didn’t come out until 1982, and was on hackysacks.
- That original book was created by three friends at Stanford University: Darrell Lorentzen, John Cassidy, and B.C. Rimbeaux, and sold 50,000 copies in its first year.
- John Cassidy was the Chief Executive and creative force behind Klutz Press, and has written more than 200 books for Klutz over the years. He even was awarded the Legacy for Children Award by the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose in 2006, which has previously been won by Dr. Seuss and Mr. Rogers, among others.
- In 1996, according to an article for Stanford Magazine, Klutz was shipping more than 5 million items a year, had a staff of 40, was having annual revenues of around $33 million, and no book ever lost money. The juggling book was their all-time best-seller, with 2 million and counting, and they estimated if you stacked all of the juggling cubes on top of each other, it would rise up 813 miles.
- The Klutz credo is: Create wonderful things, be good, have fun. Honestly? That’s a pretty good motto for life in general.
- Klutz Press started in Palo Alto, California in 1977 with the publication of the very first book: Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which came with juggling beanbags to learn. The second book didn’t come out until 1982, and was on hackysacks.
- That original book was created by three friends at Stanford University: Darrell Lorentzen, John Cassidy, and B.C. Rimbeaux, and sold 50,000 copies in its first year.
- John Cassidy was the Chief Executive and creative force behind Klutz Press, and has written more than 200 books for Klutz over the years. He even was awarded the Legacy for Children Award by the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose in 2006, which has previously been won by Dr. Seuss and Mr. Rogers, among others.
- In 1996, according to an article for Stanford Magazine, Klutz was shipping more than 5 million items a year, had a staff of 40, was having annual revenues of around $33 million, and no book ever lost money. The juggling book was their all-time best-seller, with 2 million and counting, and they estimated if you stacked all of the juggling cubes on top of each other, it would rise up 813 miles.
- The Klutz credo is: Create wonderful things, be good, have fun. Honestly? That’s a pretty good motto for life in general.
