Book Reviews:
Starred Review.
Grade 4-8–Fleischman looks at Houdini's life through his own eyes, as
a fellow magician. Guarding the secrets, yet entertaining readers, he tells the
rags-to-rags story of a poor Jewish boy named Ehrich Weiss, who longed to be like
his idol, French magician Robert-Houdin. Not satisfied to perform the usual magicians'
fare, he began perfecting tricks involving illusion, particularly escaping from
restraints such as trunks, handcuffs, and straightjackets. While performing in
small medicine shows and vaudeville theater, Ehrich, now Harry Houdini, met his
wife and stage partner, Bess. Houdini learned stunt flying and how to make elephants
disappear but gained the most attention from his public stunts, such as defying
Scotland Yard to keep him locked up, or wrapping himself in chains and jumping
into a river. Years later, he was about to perform his Chinese Water Torture trick
when his appendix ruptured and he died in a local hospital. Fleischman's tone
is lively and he develops a relationship with readers by revealing just enough
truth behind Houdini's razzle-dazzle to keep the legend alive....Fleischman's
postscript shares his own relationship with Madame Houdini, whom he visited at
length when he was a young man. Engaging and fascinating.
- School
Library Journal
Could there be anyone more qualified than Newbery
Medalist Fleischman to profile the "monarch of manacles" for young audiences?
After all, as described in his autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid (1998), Fleischman
first earned his bread as a magician. This same background imposes an unexpected
limitation: although the bibliography suggests publications to aid aspiring illusionists,
Fleischman states upfront that an unspoken covenant among magicians prevents him
from revealing Houdini's secrets. It's a tribute to Fleischman's zinging prose
that, even without spoilers, his account remains terrifically engaging, delivered
in a taut sideshow patter packed with delicious vocabulary (prestidigitator, bunkum)
that may prompt even the most verbally indifferent to a new enthusiasm for their
dictionaries. The showy language comes with real substance, too, as Fleischman
explores his subject's tireless self-reinvention (born Ehrich Weiss in a Budapest
ghetto, the ambitious lad's stage name was just one of many image-buffing ruses);
his virulent egomania; and his forays into early aviation and cinema. The show-biz
details are as fascinating as the transformation of an immigrant whose "biggest
sleight-of-hand was himself," and, thanks to the widely spaced type..., this
will draw even those readers without a biography assignment hovering overhead.
That's some trick, indeed.
- ALA Booklist
SYNOPSIS:Who was this man who could
walk through brick walls and, with a snap of his fingers, vanish elephants? In
these pages you will meet the astonishing Houdini—magician, ghost chaser,
daredevil, pioneer aviator, and king of escape artists. No jail cell or straitjacket
could hold him! He shucked off handcuffs as easily as gloves. In this fresh,
witty biography of the most famous bamboozler since Merlin, Sid Fleischman, a
former professional magician, enriches his warm homage with insider information
and unmaskings. Did Houdini really pick the jailhouse lock to let a fellow circus
performer escape? Were his secrets really buried with him? Was he a bum magician,
as some rivals claimed? How did he manage to be born in two cities, in two countries,
on two continents at the same instant? Here are the stories of how a knockabout
kid named Ehrich Weiss, the son of an impoverished rabbi, presto-changoed himself
into the legendary Harry Houdini. |
Ages:
10 and up
CD: