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The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life
The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life

Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Author: Sid Fleischman
Publisher: Greenwillow
Release Date: 1996-09-16
Reading Level: Young Adult
ISBN-10: 068814859X
ISBN-13: 9780688148591
List Price: $16.99
Average Customer Rating:
Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Summary:
The award-winning author of The Whipping Boy relates his own tale of life as a magician, writer, and screenwriter, accompanied by black-and-white photographs and helpful advice for would-be writers.

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5

The Secret to Learning to Write is...Practice, Practice, Practice!
Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
I picked up THE ABRACADABRA KID: A WRITER'S LIFE based on the reviews I read here. It was well-worth the few dollars I spent for the hardbound edition.

The life of Sid Fleischman is told in an unpretentious and humorous style, I imagine just like his novels for kids, which, I have to shamefully admit, I've never read. He tells us about his growing up poor in Brooklyn and San Diego during the Great Depression, his love of magic, his service in the U. S. Navy during WWII, becoming a cub-journalist for a local newspaper after the war, writing screenplays, and trying to be an honest-to-goodness author of children's books. There are also many photos of his parents and two sisters, himself, his own family, as well as handbills he printed in High School Printing Shop class announcing the "See'n is Believ'n" magic shows he and a friend, Bud Ryan, performed for the public (in an effort to make some money during the lean years). They called themselves "The Ryan Brothers".

Sid divides his book into 43 short chapters beginning each with a humorous excerpt from one of the many letters he has received from fans...all of them from kids. For example: "Please don't come back to my school. I hate to write letters." (p.45); "When did you start writing? When are you going to stop?" (p.98); "I'd like to be a writer, but my hand gets tired. Can you give me some advice?" (p.174). Fortunately, Sid does end his book with practical advice to anyone, child or adult, who wants to write.

While the book is a stroll down memory lane, it is a trip only those who lived through the Depression and Second World War will remember taking. If you happen to be, like me, a "Baby Boomer" and nostalgic about growing up in the 50s and 60s, I recommend THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID by Bill Bryson and KNOTS IN MY YO-YO STRING by Jerry Spinelli. If you want to learn the craft of writing, read THE ABRACADABRA KID.

The Abracadabra Kid Rate
Customer Rating:  Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3
This book shows basically all of Sid Fleischman's career life. This is from when he was a boy to now. In his first career he wanted to be a magician, and that's what this book is mainly about.

Not just for kids
Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
I was surprised to see that a reviewer called this a book that could teach kids how to write. Of course it can, but it can teach *anyone* of any age how to be a better writer. Sid Fleischman's sweet, gentle humor shines through on every page. His advice to aspiring magicians, authors, parents, human beings in general is so sound and so commonsensical that at first it seems simplistic. It isn't. Nothing he advises is obvious; it's just that he expresses it so well and it makes so much sense that his words slip into your work and make it, and you, better.

THE MAGIC OF BECOMING A WRITER
Customer Rating:  Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4
Do you want to become a writer? Here's how. First become a magician, then travel the high seas, drop into a reporter's job and start having a family. Once done write a few screen plays and use your kids to critique your work. Does the above sound unbelievable? Yes indeed, except that it is true. Sid Fleischman did live such a life and now is sharing it with his fans.

You will enjoy this entertaining autobiography of one of america's famous children's authors. Sid's life is a fantasy of adventure and excitement as you see how he becomes an author. It was not intentional and took a long time but it was worth it in the end.

Enjoy his life story filled with unexpected escapades and happenings over his illustrious career. He share with us his family and their crazyness and keeps us entertained. You will enjoy his life and his telling of how his characters were born.


CHARMING, WITTY, and MAGICAL... THE ABRACADABRA KID
Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
CHARMING, WITTY, and MAGICAL... THE ABRACADABRA KID, A WRITERS LIFE

Newbery award winner, Sid Fleischman is surprised that he grew up to be a writer. " I had a childhood much like everyone else's," he writes. " What went wrong?" Sid Fleischman had a childhood that was not so typical after all. He grew up during the Great Depression with his best friend, named Buddy. Born to Russian immigrant parents, Sid enjoyed life with his three siblings. In fifth grade Sid decided to become a magician much to his fathers dislike. He taught himself magic tricks from library books and became known in his hometown of San Diego, as the Abracadabra Kid. Read and feel Sid's sadness as he tells you about the horrors of battle during World War II. Serving his country in the U.S. Navy, he finds good in everything. Sid loved to fish and spend time with his Spanish girlfriend any time he could, while off duty in the Navy. Sid Fleischman's writing career began after the war with an unsuccessful 250-page mystery. Working hard to correct and rewrite his mystery paid off with a winner. And thus began his writing career. Travel with Sid as he retells his charming life's story, in the Abracadabra Kid. Enjoy his wit and ups and downs of his successful life.


























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