The only explanation is that you're missing a step. You must follow the instructions for each spell to the letter. Do everything it says. Are you speaking the incantation at the appropriate time? Waving the magic wand over the resulting magic object? They're not always in the same order, too. I did...

I am running into a couple of problems with the spells in the lab. Once I completed learning the 1st spell, such as talking to animals, and I exited the book, I turned into some creature and then the game is over. I also ran into problems where I learned the 1st spell, I can't learn the 2nd spell wi...