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The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life

By: Sid Fleischman
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 068814859X
ISBN-13: 9780688148591
Released: 12 Sep 1996
RRP: £9.49
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A writer's life. - By: , 02 Feb 1999
Sid Fleischman started out a child magician. His first book was a book of magic tricks, but since then he's written screen plays & several children's books, & even been the recipient of the prestigious Newbery Award for "The Whipping Boy," 1987. Sid's son Paul has also broken into the world of children's writing & written award winning books of his own, "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices," 1989 among others. The "Abracadabra Kid" is an amusing autobiography written in a direct way, putting free speech on paper. Mostly it's a life story, but Fleischman does offer advice to aspiring authors. A lot of his growth as a writer has been in learning to develop plot. "Daily life doesn't often help. It rarely delivers us three acts ready to write. The author needs to rearrange the furniture, putting random story elements in some sort of dramatic alignment (p. 82)." That was chapter 19. By chapter 43, the final chapter, Fleischman writes, "Now I can sit at my desk without an idea in my head and, like a palming trick, produce a rough plot. I suppose that skill is one of the marks of a professional (p.194)." Sid Fleischman has learned a lot throughout his life as a magician, in the navy, as a newspaper reporter, & fiction writer. He shares his memories, encounters, photographs & writer's wisdom in this humorous autobiography. At least he didn't embrace the "wit Fred Allen who didn't know why anyone would spend a year or two writing a novel when you can easily buy one for a few dollars (p. 83)."