Monday, April 7, 2008

Houdini: World's Greatest Mystery Man and Escape King

Author: Kathleen Krull
Illutrator: Eric Velasquez
Publisher and date of publication: Walker and Company, 2005
Genre: Nonfiction, Biography
Grade: 2-5

Houdini, also known as Erik Weiss was born in Budapest, Hungary around 1874. His home was located in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was the son of a Jewish rabbi and one of seven kids. Growing up him and his family were poor and on the edge of homelessness. Instead of going to school he worked to contribute money to his family. He used to charge people money to see his "Prince Of Air" trapeze act on the playground. At age twelve he ran away to lessen the burden of his family. He met up with his family in New Your City were he worked in the factory and in his spare time ran, swam, boxed and other activities. Houdini loved to read and one day he read a book about the French founder of magic, which is where he got his name Houdini. He quickly began practicing magic and soon traveled all over doing 12 shows a day. His shows consisted of card tricks, magic routines and other small things. At 19 he married the love of his life Bess Rahner. She was shorter than 5 feet and began his partner in his 1st masterpiece called "Metamorphosis". Bess helped Houdini in all of his shows. His number one goal was to pack the house, which was not an easy task. The owner of a theater came to him one day and asked if he could focus only on dramatic escapes. He was soon bringing in audiences and making a lot of money. Houdini was very strong. He bought many magic books and is said to have had the largest collection of magic in America. He practiced 6-8 hours everyday. He conquered panic so that he could do tricks in ice-cold water, escape routines and many more. Later in life he bought his dream home in NYC and supported his entire family. He was self educated and had a large ego. Houdini dies in 1926 at the age of 52. Houdini always said to never tell your secrets however here are a few things we know about him. He could expand his chest so that once he was in a straight jacket he would deflate and make it easier to get out. He had extraordinary muscle control, which allowed his toes to operate fingers and to swallow and return keys. Houdini was also obsessed with studying locks. He bought one of every lock that he could find, would take it apart and completely understand its process. He truly was magical.

I was very excited to pick a biography book on someone. I was not sure who I was going to pick. As I was looking through the catalog in the library I came across this Houdini book and got really excited. I love magic shows. I can remember always buying those books that would teach you coin trick, card tricks and other things like that. Any time Chris Angel or a documentary about magicians comes on TV. I can guarantee you that I am watching it. I have always heard of Houdini, I mean who hasn't. But, I never really knew what he was all about and why he was so famous. I didn't know what boundaries he had broken to become so great. Well this book answered all of those questions. It is full of fun facts about how he became the mystery man and escape king. The book also provided little inserts about magic tricks that he was known for and how he would perform them on stage. I felt like I was watching a show as a read the story. The illustrations are very realistic. The illustrator did not over or under exaggerate the colors but used them as you would see them in real life. My favorite thing was when the book was describing a trick the illustrator would portray different images of the trick as if you were watching it from start to finish. This book really made me want to learn more about Houdini and all that he did.

You could use this book to talk about Houdini and the impact he made on entertainment and magic in the late 1800's early 1900's. You could also use this book to begin exploring magicians, how they came about and why they are so important to our history. I really think it would be fun to bring in books of magic tricks and have each student learn one and then as a class put on a magic show for each other. I think that this is one way to really lighten things up and have fun in the classroom. Don't be limited to just talking about Houdini have them explore his would by creating magic themselves.

The following link tells a little bit about Houdini being in children's literature and then provides a list of other books for young readers about Houdini:

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