My name is John Smith, Jr., but everyone calls me Houdini. I don't see the lower end of the recommended ages enjoying this for the language, dry humor, and current events may be above them. I will avoid spoilers, but can safely say that the author either ran out of time or gave up here.This would probably be suitable for a short time as an upper grade hi-lo read, but the reliance on contemporary news events to drive some of the story would out date it quickly among those readers. I was most disappointed in the very predictable climax and then let down of an ending. They went through the motions to get through the author's idea for a story arc and even that seemed a little contrived. The others, including Houdini, come off as shallow representations of those from a stereotypical teen novel. The only one who was truly intriguing was Old Man Jackson, and I would love to learn more about him. I cannot say the same about the characters though. The author also has a good knack for being able to bring places alive through his descriptions. The positives of the book were the fact that the language was easy to understand, and the chapters manageable, especially given the recommended reading ages of 3rd to 7th grade. I won this as a giveaway from another site and was looking forward to it based on the publisher descriptions.However, I was rather disappointed once I got into it.

And Houdini discovers that writing and thinking about his friends and family lets him get to know them in completely new ways. No matter what, Houdini and his friends rely on one another to figure out how to do the right thing. But it's hard to find a way to write about his dad losing his job or his brother, Franklin, who is first reported missing in action in Iraq and then still seems to be missing when he comes home. Houdini chronicles his life as he and his friends start a leaf-raking business, befriend Old Man Jackson (a Vietnam War veteran with a seriously intimidating dog), and get even with the neighborhood bully, Angel.

When an author comes to speak to his class in a rundown area of Providence, Houdini decides to make money by writing his own novel. Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, and Jack Gantos's Joey Pigza Books comes a hilarious and poignant slice-of-life novel from critically acclaimed author and poet Peter Johnson. For fans of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee, Gary D.

The amazing houdini