Escape! : The Story of the Great Houdini

This is a great account of the life of Erich Weiss, alias Harry Houdini. In clear, often cleverly worded prose Fleischman conveys a sense of what made this average magician so famous. Told with a heaping dose of skepticism, the story of Houdini's life emerges as the tale of a self-made man with a tremendous ego and a penchant for stretching the truth. Several long-standing myths are dispelled here. Fleischman himself had a brief career in his younger years as a magician, so he has considerable knowledge of the world of magic. As a biography for reluctant (but not slow) readers, this title fills a great need at the middle school level. The design of the book is very reader friendly, with double spaced text and a lot of spectacular pictures. The front and back covers feature actual advertising posters for Houdini's performances. A bibliography and an index are included.