Escape! The story of the great Houdini

Review by Booklist Review

Gr. 6-9. 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),\b 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 and compelling visuals, this will draw even those readers without a biography assignment hovering overhead. That's some trick, indeed. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2006 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this breezy biography, Newbery Medalist Fleischman, himself a former magician, pays homage to Harry Houdini-the man and the myth. Audio actor Mali, an expert at suspense and tension, is the right man for the narration. Through blood, sweat and tears-and the love of a good woman-poor Jewish immigrant Ehrich Weiss transforms himself into Harry Houdini, one of magic's greatest showmen. Mali unfurls the historical material with ease, matching the author's relaxed prose style. He savors the period details and vaudevillian language: "razz-matazz," "bamboozled," "flim-flammery." Mali renders the array of increasingly dangerous stunts-the Metamorphosis, the Indian Needle Trick and the Chinese Water Torture Cell-with such a sense of showmanship that listeners may feel themselves part of the audience. Fleischman doesn't reveal any of the escape king's secrets but does debunk some of the better-known myths. Mali's fresh and versatile voice also captures Houdini's indignation at his pesky imitators and disdain for fraud spiritualists. His outsize ego and thin skin are brought to life, too. The photographs included in the print version (from Fleischman's personal collection via Bess Houdini, the magician's widow and Fleischman's one-time mentor) would have been a welcome supplement. A now aged and raspy-voiced Fleischman reads the preface and last chapter, bookending an engaging narrative. Ages 9-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 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. Numerous black-and-white photographs chronicle the magician's life, and Fleischman's postscript shares his own relationship with Madame Houdini, whom he visited at length when he was a young man. Engaging and fascinating.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Horn Book Review

(Intermediate, Middle School) Adopting a tone somewhere between vaudeville announcer and carnival barker, Fleischman lures readers to the greatest show of all: reading. Death-defying escapes, s+ance secrets, never-before-seen photographs-it's all here, in print! A magician himself, Fleischman does not disappear from the narrative but uses his authority to offer personal comments and conjure up verbal wordplay, allowing both to pop up like so many rabbits out of a hat. (""To a magician, effect makes the world go round. Effect is muscle. How he flexes it is nobody's business."") Despite an extensive annotated list of source material, direct quotes show little attribution, and readers are alerted to some sleight of hand in dialogue, a ""bit of ventriloquism across the decades""; however, there's no confusion about what is fact and what is fiction in the magician's murky past. Best of all, though, Fleischman knows good showbiz when he sees it. He covers the drama of Houdini's escapades and adventures without dwelling on the man's psychological complications. The pacing is as sure and energetic as that of a practiced performer. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

It seems obvious that Fleischman, Newbery author of numerous novels involving magic, would write a biography about master magician Houdini, but it took decades before he was able to transport his personal connection and admiration into a book. Fleischman separates fiction from fact, discrepancies and contradictions of Houdini's life as skillfully as sawing a woman in half. What sets this biography apart from and above others is the author's personal involvement with his subject; it's a mesmerizing configuration of both lives. When Fleischman found a forgotten box of photos of the magician that Houdini's wife had personally given him, they ignited his curiosity--could he unveil the illusions of the great man? Cunning chapter titles, spacious format and the black-and-white photos that profile the man's unique mystique are tied together like a string of silk scarves spilling from a sleeve that fascinate, intrigue and amaze. What do you get when you put two prestidigitators, one a spellbinding escape artist, the other a magician with words, into a black hat and wave the wand? Abracadabra--a feat that's pure magic. (Biography. 9-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini Chapter One He Was Born, But Where? Not long ago the breast pocket snipped from a man's pajamas came up for auction in New York City. Immediately, bids around the room erupted like doves flushed from cover. So eager was the crowd for this fragment of sleepwear that a lofty price of $3,910 was reached before the auctioneer banged his hammer and shouted, "Sold!" Why would anyone want the pocket of an old pair of striped pajamas with the initials HH monogrammed in gray? Easy. The first initial stood for Harry. The second for Houdini. Harry Houdini , the world's greatest magician and escape artist. No jail cell, no chains, no manacles could hold the man. Houdini , who walked through a red-brick wall! He came through without a scratch, too. Houdini , who clapped his hands like cymbals and made a five-ton Asian elephant disappear into thin air. Not even the elephant knew how he did it. Like those engaged in the ancient commerce in relics of saints, buying and selling a wrist bone here, a great toe there, today's magic collectors seek anything associated with the supernova of sorcery, the incomparable, the fabled Houdiniâ€"even a trivial scrap of flannel. This powerfully built but diminutive young man was the most commanding wizard to burst upon the world scene since Merlin performed his parlor tricks during the misty days of King Arthur. Houdini could have sawed Merlin in half. An abject failure as a magician in his early twenties, Houdini woke one morning, like the poet Lord Byron, to find himself famous. A knockabout kid, the son of an impoverished rabbi, he insisted that he was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. An ambitious finger finger, he crowned himself King of Cards, with holes in his socks. Leaping onto a carousel horse at full gallop, he reached for the gold ring of stardomâ€"and caught it. That, perhaps, was his greatest sleight-of-hand trick, as we shall see. What exactly did he do that so excited the world's imagination? What razzle-dazzle fixed the name Houdini in the public memory so firmly that it is still remembered today, more than eighty years after his final disappearing act? Watch him. Tightly strapped and buckled into a canvas straitjacket designed to restrain the violently insane, he is being raised by his ankles to dangle like a fish from the cornice of a tall building. He wriggles free as adroitly as a moth emerges from a cocoon. The crowd cheers. Can nothing hold the great escape artist? After recrowning himself the "King of Handcuffs," a defiant Houdini is being shackled at the wrists and ankles. He is quickly nailed inside a wooden packing case and thrown into the untidy waters of New York Harbor. Moments later, he splashes to the surface, rattling aloft the police jewelry. He has escaped the inescapable. The skeptics are befuddled. The man must have supernatural powers! Equally confounding is his trademark Indian Needle Trick. At the same time, the faux secrets were demeaning, for they dismissed the magician's hard-won sleight-of-hand skills and mastery of the arts of fooling the socks off people. Houdini was the grand guru of magic. He didn't need the unseen assistance of sprites, spirits, and imps. It is said that you know you are truly famous when the deranged imagine that they are you. Once Houdini's exploits blazed across newspaper headlines, the opportunists, the cunning, the nutcases, and the jealous emerged like theatrical chameleons. The imitators not only parted their hair in the middle, as did the escape artist, they mimicked his style of dress and his billing. There were more self-crowned Kings of Handcuffs before the footlights than in all the royal houses of Europeâ€"half a hundred in England alone. To Harry's great annoyance, these pests tried to counterfeit his name, coming up with such worshipful thefts as Whodini, Oudini, and Hardini. Women, too, tried to get into the act. Most nettlesome was a Miss Undina in Germany whose name, when pronounced, sounded close to the original. He had to sue to get her and her copycat tricks out of the escape business. And where a heavily manacled Houdini had had himself photographed in his underwear, an imitator named Miss Lincoln had herself photographed in a racy costume that could pass as knee-length bloomers. But not even the curves and black stockings of that distaff queen of handcuffs were a match for Harry's commanding footlight razzmatazz. His strategy was to trump his imitators with ever more daring and death-defying feats of mystification. It was this battle for supremacy that inspired one of his most dangerous illusionsâ€"the awesome Milk Can Escape. In earlier days, milk fresh from the cow was transported in large cans. Houdini had one made just large enough to hold him tightly folded in a fetal position. Buckets of water were poured into the can, followed by Houdini himself. Challenging his audience to hold its breath with him, the great showman lowered his head under water. The lid was secured with six padlocks, and a curtain was drawn around this impending death scene. At thirty seconds the audience was gasping for breath. Sixty seconds passed. Tick, tick, tick . Two minutes! Had the escape gone wrong? Tick, tick, tick . Was Houdini drowning? Assistants with axes stood ready to burst open the death can. At the last moment, just short of 180 seconds, out popped the master of escape, breathless, dripping wet, but very much alive. He Jests at Handcuffs shouted a Los Angeles newspaper, while Houdini challenged the world to duplicate his escapes. But as the years passed, he could read his voluminous scrapbooks, and they were telling him that flinging off handcuffs was no longer making headlines. While his name had become as recognizable as that of Napoleon, of Shakespeare, of Lincoln, the former carnival magician feared slipping back into obscurity. He understood that fame needed constant renewal, and he went at it with ingenuity and furious energy. Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini . Copyright © by Sid Fleischman . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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