The Houdini Box

Title-The Houdini box
Author- Brian Selznick
Publisher-Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Date of Publication-1991
Illustrator-
Genre-Children s Fiction
Readability lexile- 7-10 years old

Summary and target audience-This book is realistic fiction. The book takes a non factual story and places it in realistic events. This book Chronicles a boys journey in from childhood to an adult.When he was younger he wanted to be a magician just like Harry Houdini. Unfortunately when he finally go the answers to his questions the box that kept the secrets was labelled differently then expected. In turn he hid the box for a number of years until he found out that the initials on the box was Harry Houdini's birth given name. In the end of the book it showed that the now adult finally became a magician in his own house. I would say that the target audience would be children from the ages of 7-10 and i would use this in my classroom as a read aloud.

Evaluation of literature-I would recommend this book for young children to read because it shows how obstacles being put in front of your dream doesn't necessarily destroy the passion behind the dream.  The dream of being a magician is gender neutral and even though this book portrays a boy wanting to be a magician  it can easily inspire girls too.
Personification- The author uses personification to give the door human like sounds. "The door slowly opened with a sigh.
In the back of the book there is a section directly to Harry Houdini and his life and this acts like a mini autobiography. This is especially interesting because it helped make the text even more relevant and believable

Illustrations- The illustrations were representative to the text they supported thus giving students who are not that strong of a reader a grasp on the story. I thought they were very important in explaining the text.

Mini-lesson- I would use this in my classroom to talk about never letting obstacles get in your way of your goals in life.