In this month's Tech Issue of Kids VT, we pulled a newsprint trick from the Harry Potter movies — sort of. Remember how photos in The Daily Prophet spring to life with movement and sound? Using an app called Layar, we've done the same with our October cover illustration.

To see the magic for yourself, download the free Layar app in the App Store. Then scan our cover with your smartphone and watch the techie fun — called "augmented reality" — unfold. Go ahead, scan the image above right now. We'll wait.

So, how did we do it? First, Kids VT lead designer Brooke Bousquet used PhotoShop to add animation to our cover illustration by artist Pat Lewis. Next, we added music. Since you can't throw a rock in Kids VT and sister paper Seven Days' shared office without hitting a musician, it only made sense to create an original score. Our toe-tapping audio clip was created by production manager/GarageBand maestro John James, proofreader/keyboardist Meredith Coeyman and designer/Rough Francis frontman Bobby Hackney on drums.

We think the end result is pretty cool, and helps illustrate the rapid pace of technological change — we couldn't have done this five years ago.

Pick up a copy of the October issue for many more techie tips — from the dos and don'ts of giving your kid a cellphone to the pros and cons of iPads in our children's classrooms. And drop us a line below to let us know what you think.