Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Harry Houdini for Kids by Laurie Carlson


Harry Houdini for Kids: His Life and Adventures with 21 Magic Tricks and Illusions. by Laurie Carlson. Chicago Review Press, 2009. 136 pages.
Review/Personal thoughts:  Harry Houdini was a name created by a boy to reinvent himself.  He was born in 1874 in Budapest Hungary with the name Ehrich Weisz.  With his family he immigrated to the United States when he was 4 years old and settled in Appleton, Wisconsin. Life was hard and Ehrich began learning simple card tricks to earn pennies on the street. One of the great features of this book is the inclusion of 21 magic tricks and illusions that offer a start for budding magicians.  At age 17, Ehrich invented his new name, Harry Houdini as a stage name for his magic show. Harry travelled with circuses, dime museums and freak shows performing his act.  He slowly began adding escapes into his act. He would be bound by chains and handcuffs and amaze the audience with his ability to wriggle free from the chains.  More dramatic escapes followed with police attempting to shackle him and every time he would escape. With his wife as a partner, Houdini expanded the act to include a mind reading act that left audiences stunned and was all based on a simple code. As Houdini created evermore spectacular feats they started to become death defying, capturing the attention of thousands of people at a time. In the milk can escape Houdini is handcuffed, put into a metal container filled with water and locked closed. The secret to the escape is revealed in the book!  The death defying escape act culminated with the Chinese Water Torture Cell. The mystery and controversy around his death concludes the book.   I remember as a tween, being fascinated by the life and death defying acts of Harry Houdini.  This man’s life is so remarkable, tweens of today will be equally fascinated.

Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography
Reading Level: 6.6 Interest level: Ages 8 to 11.

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