A chatty, cheerful autobiography by the author of many good books for kids including THE WHIPPING BOY. I was surprised to learn that he had also written for movies. He makes his knockabout life seem easy and enjoyable, shows how his experiences as a magician, newspaper writer, and screenwriter informed his writing, and gives some excellent advice for would-be fiction writers. The short chapters make this a good "snacking" book, not something I would read in one sitting. He certainly interested me in his writing, and I'm going to have to look up some more of his books. ( )

There's nothing fancy about this memoir. It is pretty much, as Sgt Joe Friday used to say, "just the facts" - with generous dashes of humor thrown in. Fleischman is one of those guys from that so-called Greatest Generation. A Jewish kid transplanted to San Diego as a child, he tells his story, from his birth in 1920 thru the Depression and war and right up to the present day, in a pretty straightforward fashion. But he makes you laugh - a most important ingredient in memoir-writing. A magician from his preadolescent years, he takes his act on the road at fifteen, and subconsciously stashes away the memories he's making during those early years and writes about them well later. He does his time in the Navy - in the south Pacific - during WWII and is very matter-of-fact about that too, as were so many men from that generation. Then he came back home, finished college, learned to write by trial and error, and, quite incidentally it almost seems, becomes a bestselling award-winning children's author. This is a heck of a good story, and Sid Fleischman is, to my mind, a good and most admirable man. I recommend The Abracadabra Kid highly. ( )

Young magician turns into a writer in San Diego. Perfect recommendation for juvenile biography. A hoot to read ( )