There’s a new children’s book about Harry Houdini out this week. I wrote it. It wasn’t easy.
In a way, the project started the year I turned eight. First, a magician friend of my father’s called me onstage where I placed my small hand into a guillotine, watched it get ‘chopped off’, and amazingly replaced. The next thing I knew, I was studying Marshall Brodeen commercials and developing a crush on Tony Curtis as Houdini.
At some point I received a magic kit but never astonished anyone, not even my parents. My coins dropped, my pompom balls stayed put, and my cards flopped. “Ta da! The Ace of Spades!” “Sorry, it’s the King of Hearts.” Magic had looked so easy! Like many childhood obsessions, this one ended with the tricks in the trash and a vague sense that there was something about ‘magic’ that I didn’t understand.
So, except for wearing a magician costume to a college Halloween party, seeing big name magicians in Vegas, and a few local shows with my own kids, magic was not part of my life.
In 2012, I found myself on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Library of Congress. Shifting careers from the corporate world to writing children’s nonfiction, I was researching a book on Thomas Jefferson. I jotted a quick note about a sign in one of the library’s myriad hallways, “Harry Houdini Collection.” I imagined it to be a few dusty boxes of magic paraphernalia. Instead, a quick Wikipedia search told me that the LoC Houdini shelves contained almost 4,000 volumes. And that wasn’t even Harry’s entire collection! That’s weird, I thought, Why would a magician need so many books?
So, off and on I thought about Harry; but spent the next dozen years publishing children’s books on other topics. In 2021, I mentioned Houdini to my editor and was floored by her enthusiastic response. I started learning—reading all the major Houdini biographies, talking to folks at the Library of Congress. But after months of false starts, I almost gave up. I couldn’t figure out what needed to be said about Houdini that hadn’t been said to kids before. Until…
I found Wild About Harry. John’s detailed posts about Houdini and your involved comments deepened my thinking about the man’s personality and influence. Because of posts and people found on the site, I wound up touring 278—Harry and Bess’ NYC home, visiting Gabe Fajuri at Potter & Potter, researching in Appleton and Austin, plus benefitting from the wisdom of the many Houdini collectors in this community. It was Harry’s relevance to your lives that led me to discover his relevance for today’s kids.
My newest picture book, Houdini’s Library, is the story of an immigrant boy who starts with almost nothing and become a superhero for the ages with the help of books. It’s a multi-layered story about magic—the magic of books, the magic of community, and of course, the magic of secrets, illusion, and escape.
Through the last four years of researching, drafting, and revising Houdini’s Library, I finally figured out what I hadn’t understood about magic as a child. Just like writing children’s books, magic can look simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Effortlessness (in writing or magic) is the result of focus and discipline. Houdini read and practiced, read and invented, read and met with experts, read and worked out, read and wrote, and practiced some more. I bet he felt like giving up sometimes (you know I did!), but Harry’s persistent commitment to excellence in his craft is a wonderful model for children. And Houdini truly loved his books, “The public knows me as a magician…it does not realize that I am a student.” The story of the boy who became the world’s best-known magician also turns out to be a tale of how to become a lifelong learner. No wonder so many (including Dua Lipa and Eminem) are wild about Harry!
I hope you will be as wild about Houdini’s Library as I have been about learning from each of you. I hope you pour over the detailed cut-paper dioramas of Harry’s life (truly magical!) created by illustrator Mar Delmar. I hope you will notice that the book is dedicated to our hardworking historian John Cox. And most importantly, I hope you will share the secret story of Houdini’s Library with a child in your life.
This time, I’ve worked hard enough to promise a bit of magic.
Barb Rosenstock is the award-winning author of nonfiction and historical fiction books for young readers. Her book, THE NOISY PAINT BOX, was awarded a Caldecott Honor in 2015. In addition to HOUDINI’S LIBRARY, other recent titles include SEA WITHOUT A SHORE, THE GREAT LAKES, and THE MYSTERY OF THE MONARCHS. Her first nonfiction book for young adults, AMERICAN SPIRITS: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad that Haunted a Nation, has been named a 2025 Kirkus Best Books of the Year. A native Chicagoan, Barb loves to share ideas about reading and writing with young people in schools across the country. Instagram: @brosenstock; Facebook: Barb.Rosenstock. Learn more at www.barbrosenstock.com.
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