Reader's Journal # 7 Escape: The Story of The Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

I started reading Escape: The Story of The Great Houdini, by Sid Fleischman.  It is the biography of Harry Houdini.  My favorite passage from the book is from page 8: 

                “HE JESTS AT HANDCUFFS shouted a Los Angeles newspaper, while Houdini challenged the world to duplicate his escapes.  But as the years passed, he could read his voluminous scrapbooks, and they were telling him that flinging off handcuffs was no longer making headlines.”

      I chose this passage because it shows that even when Houdini was losing good headlines, he still tried to do better and tried to do new tricks to get new headlines.          

      The two before reading strategies I used were one, to read the jacket cover to get an idea about what is in the book, and two, read the table of contents to understand what each chapter is about.  My two during reading strategies were understand Harry Houdini and what he did, and to understand the hard words that I didn’t know.  My two after reading strategies were one, to understand what I read for Reader’s Journal, and two, to understand what I learned about Harry Houdini.

                The genre of the book is biography.  Its characteristics are that it tells you about Harry Houdini.  The topic of the book is Harry Houdini.  What I have read so far in the book talks about when he was already famous.  The main idea so far has been about Harry Houdini’s success and it was implied.  Another title for the book might be Escape Master because that’s what he was.

                The supporting details from the book that support the main idea are that he always made a lot of money from his shows, the newspapers wrote about him, and in his time he could do what no one else could do.  The first two details are factual and the third one is sensory.

                The essential message of the text is that if you believe that you can do something, you’ll always be able to do it.

                A cause and effect that I found in the book was that when Houdini realized that just flinging off handcuffs would not be enough anymore to get the same kind of publicity as it had in the past, he decided to try to do more amazing tricks.

                The pattern of organization is that the book is divided into chapters, with pictures of Houdini mixed in.  The author explains that he wrote this because he had a liking for the subject.  The perspective is that he is with Houdini because he believes that Houdini worked hard and deserves to be treated good. 

                Five words that I did not know before reading this book are pluck which means to take out, sleuthing which means scanning or researching.  Cornice, which means the means the corner edge of a building.  Guru, which means master or teacher.  And obscurity, which means hidden or unknown.

                I would rate this book five out of five stars because it has a lot of information, it’s a Jewish book, and I like reading about magicians.

                Sincerely, your student,

Michael Heskiel