Thanks to John Cox, I received an early copy of Houdini’s Library, that is to be released on February 17, 2026.
A fresh and fascinating picture book biography about the iconic magician Harry Houdini, an avid book collector who lived and breathed the idea that books are magic, from the author of Caldecott Honor book The Noisy Paint Box.
Houdini is the world’s most beloved magician, and he became famous for all of the amazing tricks he accomplished. Houdini knew just how to captivate his audience, whether it was leaping from a bridge or freeing himself from a straitjacket. But in true magician’s fashion, he kept a secret so great that not many people knew about, and that was his love for books!
As a young boy in Budapest, Harry learned to read at his father’s knee. After the family emigrated to America, Harry grew up to be the amazing Houdini–but never lost his love of reading. He spent the rest of his life collecting all kinds of rare and unusual books, almost entirely about magic. With warm, inviting text and astounding art with miniature models constructed from paper, this extraordinary book opens a new page on the story of Harry Houdini.
The first things that caught my attention, was the cover, where Houdini was hanging upside down in a straitjacket, holding a book and the back cover with Houdini sitting in a chair next to a milk can, reading a book. You got to love the theme.
Opening up the book, I see end sheets that each depict keys with a quote from Houdini that caught my attention:
- “I actually live in a library”
- “The public knows me as a magician….It does not realize that I am a student.”
This is followed by a dedication to John Cox and public libraries, along with acknowledgements to Harry Ransom Center, Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division, History Museum at the Castle, Bruce Averbook, Dr. Eric Colleary, Gabe Fajuri, Vincent Toms and others.
Opposite the Dedication/Acknowledgment page is the Title page with Houdini upside down in the Water Torture Cell, reading a book.
The well-researched children’s biography starts and ends with the above image.
The author, Barb Rosenstock, uses words to eloquently reveal the legendary magician’s untold story as a devoted book lover, from his father’s books, to visiting used bookstores, to reading a book by Jean Robert-Houdin, to buying more used books to study magic, to collecting books and collections of books, to traveling with a library of books, to having a home filled with books, to hiring a librarian to sort and catalog the books.
The Illustrator, Mar Delmar, uses paper and scissors, to beautifully translate the words into images on each page. And the book ends with an Illustrator’s note with photographs showing the key stages (Final drawing, cutting, painting, building final diorama art) of the process used to create the end product (e.g.,final image seen above).
I highly recommend this captivating picture book biography that reveals the iconic magician’s hidden life as a devoted bibliophile.
