Harry Houdini: Death-Defying Showman

Sterling Biographies

by Rita Thievon Mullin

With his seemingly impossible escapes and incredible feats of illusion, Harry Houdini lived a life so fantastic that it seems almost too amazing even for fiction. Beyond his on-stage magic, Houdini also made his mark as an airplane pioneer, movie star, and debunker of frauds. His renown extended from his childhood home in Appleton, Wisconsin to Europe to Sydney, Australia. Children will thrill as they read about his seemingly superhuman successes?including when Houdini, hanging by his ankles and wrapped in a straightjacket, managed to free himself in less than three minutes. The biography also delves into Houdini’s impoverished childhood, his close relationship with his family, his start in show business?and how he managed some of his famous tricks.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

124 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

Reviews

[Caleb Shumaker]

I really liked this biography because I've been interested in how houdini got to be one of the greatest magicians for awhile now. I think it's incredible how he can be so determined to fool others that he spent most of his early life reading magic books. It also amazes me how he can learn how to do so much to his body. Like the trick he learned in the circus with the needles on a string that go down his throat. I can't even grasp how popular he must've been in the early 20th century. Even nowaday magicians will perform his tricks to amaze crowds when he first did the trick a solid 100 years ago. I think it's great how Harry gave so much money back to his mom because I could only imagine how much she had to deal with all of her 7 children. I never knew Houdini flew the first airplane in Australia. He must have really been willing to try anything. My favorite trick of Houdini's was where he would escape a town's prison cell for publicity. I was really surprised that the book had nothing on Houdini getting accused of being a fraud. At his time period I would assume a lot of people would think he was faking every trick he was doing. I thought it was very fitting that houdini died of a trick after doing so many death defying tricks in his life. It would be the only fitting for a guy like that to go out swinging.

[Per-Nik]

Harry Houdini is a magician, possibly the greatest, that has graced this earth with many astonishing tricks and escapes. All he wanted was to become famous, but his real goal was to always win and to never lose which he almost did. People had to cheat to make him lose and he was the first man ever to fly a plane in Australia beating an opponent. But certain things got in his way, like his lack of money and his lack of knowledge lead him on a journey through much study and accomplishments so he designed and built tricks and gimmicks for his performances, travel all over the US to earn more money, and then once he was discovered in a tour in Europe, he was earning much more than he could imagine by the time he was murdered. Harry Houdini's life was full of determination, dedication and selflessness.

[Brenden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about Harry Houdini and how he went from a big poor family that moved almost every year to a showman who is well known throughout history. Before he was famous he loved to do acrcobat shows for the neighbor hood kids. He then went on the road to try and help his family out with their money problem. When he was about 25 he became big he went all around the world with his wife.


I really liked this book, it was very interesting and gave me a lot of information about Harry Houdini. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes informational books.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin - a kid-friendly biography of Ehrich Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini!

[Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This mostly talks about Harry Houdini's life and his amazing magic skills that have shocked everyone. Harry Houdini does many magic unbelievable magic tricks, but something you didn't know is that he was an airplane pioneer, movie star, and a debunker of frauds. He started to get interested in magic during his childhood times. When Harry Houdini has started to do magic and has gone to many stages to preform his amazing piece of magic and even children would read about his seemingly superhuman successes. Like for example when Houdini was hanging by his ankles and wrapped in a straightjacket and for some reason he managed to escape in less than three minutes. This book doesn't only talk about Houdini's amazing magic skills, but also talks about his childhood and his family and friends. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in magic.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed to read a book on Houdini for my book club, and not wanting to spend much time reading it, chose a Sterling Biography for young people. I thought it was well done and filled with lots of information, photos and artifacts.