Donna assures readers that ""anyone can be an instant genius. . .using a fresh approach, a few techniques and the ordinary peanut"" -- though presumably some items from her seven-page list o tools and materials would also help -- and that though alchemists of old failed to turn metal into gold, you can make magic by turning peanuts into elephants, tigers, butterflies, dolls, and in fact ""any object you can think of."" When she proceeds from there (after the obligatory dissertation on the nature of the legume and the work of G. W. Carver) with a hundred-page guide to transforming the Arachis hypogaea into toy animals, dolls, flowers, puppets, and the inevitable holiday decorations, it becomes clear that her chief feat lies in converting a possible kids' magazine craft piece into a $5.50 book.