Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini

by Sid Fleischman

Book Overview

How did he walk through walls, escape drowning, and shatter iron chains that were tightly wrapped around him? The rare photos in this book might help you figure it out. So might the exclusive update about the rumor that Houdini was poisoned. But just remember, a true magician never reveals his tricks. . . .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060850965
• ISBN13: 9780060850968
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.9" x 9.9"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

For Magicians Of All Ages!

I bought this book for a Valentine's present for my husband, who has been doing magic tricks and illusions since he was a young boy. He has always been fascinated by the Great Houdini, so when I saw this book, I took a chance. We have both enjoyed this book tremendously. It is written in very nice, simple language, with large print, and wonderful never-seen before photos. I would highly recommend this little magical gem!

A 2007 Association of Jewish Libraries Notable Book for Older Readers

Biographies can be dull and plodding, but this one is just the opposite. Partly because of the nature of the subject - the fascinating magician, illusionist, and escape artist Harry Houdini - and partly because of the bright prose of the author, this biography is engaging, humorous, and a pleasure to read. It is full of colorful language like prestidigitator, bamboozler, razzmatazz, razzle-dazzle, ragamuffin, derring-do, braggadocio, boondocks, bunkum, and blunderbuss. It is also infused with the showman's Jewish side, recalling Houdini's birth as Ehrich Weiss to an impoverished but scholarly rabbi in a Budapest ghetto, his self-invention and brashness as an immigrant, the effects of anti-Semitism, and his lifelong love of learning. According to the author, Jews are significant in the history of magic. Along the way we get a history lesson in vaudeville and other popular entertainments in turn of the century America and Europe. We also see Houdini as quite the overachiever; in addition to his legendary feats, he was an author, editor, pilot, and collector of magician memorabilia. REVIEWED BY SUSAN BERSON (DENVER, CO)

An excellent, lively text makes for a biography perfect for reports.

Ages 9 and older will find ESCAPE a vivid story of master escape artist and magician Houdini, a man who could walk through brick walls and escape the most impossible circumstances. This biography comes from an author who was a former professional magician himself, and offers stories of how the son of an impoverished rabbi changed himself into the world-known Houdini. An excellent, lively text makes for a biography perfect for reports.

Escape! into this showman's spirited triumph!

Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini, a magician's tale conjured from a magician's top hat, is a showman's spirited triumph. Sid Fleischman, himself a magician as documented in The Abracadabra Kid, fills each page with enchanting insights not possible by writers outside the magic circle. Beyond that, the reader of both Fleischman books will soon discover many similarities between the author and his subject. Both Jews, both taken up by the magician's wand at an early age, both showmen, both devoted to lifelong sweethearts, and both eager to extend a hand to those just coming up the pike. No wonder Fleischmen had to write this book. In addition to facts and figures found in traditional tellings, Fleischman reveals absurdities of the magic trade in the same way that the Great Houdini did at the turn of the last century. Though an illusionist to the very end, Houdini grew to loathe spiritualists who preyed on the grieving relatives of young men lost in WWI and went to considerable lengths to expose them. Fleischman continues the debunking. Through the vagabond subject's experiences, the author deftly slips the history of the era--WWI, the advent of movies, the demise of vaudeville--into every chapter. Comparing the value of dollars then and now Fleischman gives the reader a strong sense of both history and economics. Inflation is no illusion. Literary allusions and theatrical terms abound in context, without confusing the unfamiliar reader. Fleischman's trademark promotion of reading slides in unexpectedly as he shows time and again how much this grammar school dropout relied on his books to improve upon his language, his image, his birthdate, and his country of origin and to sharpen his trade skills and to build his 5,000-book collection. The book is peppered with historic photographs, some from the author's own collection (he knew Mrs. Houdini), with captions that are a great read unto themselves. Yet Fleischman is no flim-flam man. When he discovers conflicting information, he explains that to the reader, allowing a rare look over the author's shoulder. The vocabulary is far from simplified, but the fast pace and clear language make it a winner for all ages. Safe for reading aloud in public classrooms and at home. The slim volume is easy to hold and there is ample space between the lines, making it an easy-on-the-eyes read. As well as being a great story well told, this is a brilliant example of a research paper. Though filled with anecdotes from the author's own magical experiences, references are made throughout the book to the many other sources he used--letters, diaries, handbills, and, of course, other people's books. The bibliography is chock full of personal annotations. Want to know about Chinese water torture, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or Machpelah Cemetery in Queens? Well, the index will send you to the right page for a magnified view. Whether starting with the pictures, the index,

No single book can hold him!

Oh me, oh my, another Houdini biography? A person could be forgiven for giving a groan at hearing that yet another such beast was being churned out of the publishing houses. Even the library with the poorest stock of literary biographies for children will find that it has at least one moth-eaten old bio of that greatest of self-promoters. So it was with great trepidation that I examined Sid Fleischman's newest contribution to the world of non-fiction. Admittedly, the man had his credentials in order. Not only can he boast to have met and conversed often with Houdini's wife, Bess, but he has actually been a magician himself. How many other biographers of the mysterious man can say as much? And then reading through "Escape!" I found the book to be an entirely enjoyable lark. Relying a great deal on Fleischman's trademark easy-going voice and writing style, the book sets out to debunk as many Houdini myths as it possibly can while simultaneously reestablishing its subject to be the amazing genius he truly was. Fleischman doesn't flinch from the less enjoyable aspects of Houdini's life, but neither does he degrade the man who could arguably have been called America's greatest entertainer. Born Erich Weiss in Hungary in 1874, Houdini's family moved from Budapest to the United States when he was four. Times were tough, even in Appleton, Wisconsin where the family took up residence. At 12, Erich ran away from home, later rejoining the family in New York City. He came into the world of magic slowly, but when he concentrated on the subject he applied himself fully. Fleischman's book shows how Houdini was both a great magician and a great self-promoter. His ego seemingly knew no bounds, and the author is even able to touch on some of the weirder aspects of Houdini's life (his obsession with own mother, for example) without making the man out to be a freak. By the end of the book, myths have been destroyed but the legend is as strong and proud as ever. Even the Mastery of Mystery himself would be pleased. Of course, Fleischman has a hard time keeping his fictionalizing and speculation in check. Though there's only two of them, the author sometimes will say something along the lines of, "one can easily imagine the sort of conversation that followed". Then he'll write down dialogue that probably never happened, possibly because his yearning to write speech down is so deeply ingrained in his authorial make-up. The passage where Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first meet is especially painful in this respect. Anytime a biographer starts using sentences that ends with, "said The Great Houdini, in all likelihood", it's treading on very very thin ice. Detroit River thin, if you get my drift. Where Fleischman excels is in producing peculiar artifacts that give Houdini far more depth than an average children's biography might lend him. At one point we see a handbill from when Houdini visited the Klan Auditorium in Texas. He points out that the Ku Klux Klan was