HARRY HOUDINI

MacLeod offers a biography for readers not yet up to Tom Lalicki’s outstanding Spellbinder: The Life of Harry Houdini (2000). Alternating captioned collages of photos, posters and other images with pages of text, this latest entry in the Snapshots series aims to chronicle Houdini’s life and career, as well as provide some insight into his not-exactly-humble character (“With due modesty, I recognize no one as my peer”). Though her account, particularly her brief descriptions of Houdini’s fantastic escapes, doesn’t match the drama of Kathleen Krull’s Houdini: The World’s Greatest Mystery Man and Escape King (p. 289), illustrated by Eric Velasquez, readers will come away with a good overview of the great performer’s accomplishments and public persona. An engaging tour, albeit over well-traveled territory. (index, chronology) (Biography. 9-11)