A little boy name Ehrich became Harry Houdini and is the greatest magician in the world. ( )

I liked this little biography, Harry Houdini by Patricia Lakin. It was written in an easy to read format while being packed with lots of information. I liked this book because unlike other biographies I've read it was a simple read. And even though it was easy to read it still gave a lot of information. This book had loads of information about Harry Houdini. It gave a nice synopsis of his life, his real name and how he learned his craft. I had never known Harry Houdini’s real name was Ehrich Weiss and that he changed his name at the age of seventeen.
“His favorite library book was by the world-famous French magician, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Ehrich added an “i” to the end of his idol’s last name. Ehrich’s nickname, “Ehrie,” sounded like Harry. From then on seventeen-year-old Ehrich Weiss was known as Harry Houdini.”
Another reason I found this book great was the timeline in the back. Although the book gave a lot of information, the timeline in the back gave even more in an easy to find and organized manner. The information from the timeline included Harry Houdini’s birth and death date, his marriage dates, and even his first use of handcuffs. This feature in the back gave more specific information so I was able to leave the book having learned a lot. I learned that Harry Houdini performed for several U.S. presidents and that he died on Halloween. The big idea for this book is simply to inform. This book gave a nice summary on the life and career of Harry Houdini. ( )

I liked that this biography showed a family immigrating to America in the late 1800s and the hard work they endured to get ahead. I also really enjoyed the illustrations but thought some of the words would have been hard for a beginning reader.

A library program to go along with this book could be a day of magic, where the children learn about famous magicians then learn a few magic tricks themselves. ( )