Harry Houdini: The Legend of the World's Greatest Escape Artist (review)

Illusionist, contortionist, inveterate risk-taker and master of self-promotion, Harry Houdini (born Erich Weiss) steadily maintains his status among the A-list personalities in school biography reports. Thus a new offering on his gasp-worthy career is generally considered for inclusion among the—dare we say "glut"?—of Houdini titles on the shelf. Weaver's picture book-formatted bio falls short in comparison with such recent works as Jason Lutes' Houdini the Handcuff King (BCCB 6/07) or Sid Fleischman's Escape! (BCCB 10/06), lacking the novelty of Lutes' graphic-novel examination of Houdini's Charles River escape and the rollicking narration of Fleischman's lengthier study. What it does boast, though, is a serviceable (if somewhat thin) account coupled with a favorable picture-to-text ratio calculated to attract reluctant readers. Scads of black-and-white photographs and colorful ephemera are further supplemented with Lane's flashy full-page paintings which, although largely extraneous and even a tad cheesy beside the primary-source images, do break the text into less daunting sections. Source notes, an index, and a bibliography are included, as well as an annotated list of websites.