A recently released picture book focuses on Houdini’s love of books. Targeted to readers aged 4 to 8, the work comes from author Barb Rosenstock and illustrator Mar Delmar. In it, we learn how important books were to Houdini as a child, and how after he became Harry Houdini he—with the aid of his librarian Alfred Becks—built a collection of over 15,000 publications.
What’s perhaps most endearing about Houdini’s Library, however, is how it conveys the escape artist’s love of reading (and hopefully inspires a love of the same in its young readers). “Books are Harry’s greatest escape. They spark imagination. They bring the past to life,” the story says near the end. “They make a home feel like a home. Books transformed a poor, unknown boy into the great Houdini—collector, researcher, student, showman—the world’s favorite magic maker.”
Illustrations courtesy of Random House Children’s Books / Barb Rosenstock photo by Ann & Kam Photography
The illustrations—paper dioramas that were then photographed—are also impressive. At the end of the book, Delmar describes putting the images together as “trying to solve a big jigsaw puzzle without seeing the full picture. It took a lot of hours over weeks and months to organize the fragments without knowing how they would look together.” She also recognizes receiving help from many, including Houdini experts John Cox and David Merlini.