Before his father died, Ehrich promised to him always take care of his mother. In 1892, his father, who was a rabbi, died, leaving wife and 6 children to care for. At 9 y.o., he also had his first starring act in a backyard circus that he put together with his friends.

He sold newspapers, shined shoes, and ran errands. He started working when he was only 8 y.o.

He and his Jewish family moved to America in 1875, when he was a baby. Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss) was born in 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. Houdini had a very extraordinary and adventurous life as a talented escape artist! This is a children's book that I used to improve my English reading skills. Check out my blog to find out more!Ĥ,5 stars. My first novel for teenagers was THIS MUST BE LOVE, which retells Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a modern-day high school, from the POV of the two heroines, Hermia and Helena.Īnd now I'm writing in a new project called SEEKERS! It's a children's book series that I'm writing with Erin Hunter. MEET MO AND ELLA is tough to find now, but FUN WITH MO AND ELLA should still be out there somewhere. My first two official books were beginning readers, part of Grosset & Dunlap’s “First Friends” series for kids learning to read. Much to my parents’ relief, I abandoned my theatrical aspirations after college for the far more stable and lucrative career of fiction writing. I graduated from Williams College in ’98 and I currently live in Boston with my husband, my perfect new baby, and my adorable yoodle Sunshine (what’s a yoodle? A puppy that’s three-quarters poodle and one-quarter Yorkshire terrier, of course!). because it was artistically fulfilling, yes.)

I was born July 31 (same birthday as Harry Potter!) in Caracas, Venezuela, and lived in Asuncion, Paraguay Miami, Florida and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before moving to New Jersey in high school, where I started doing theatre-mostly backstage work, because (a) it was fun, and (b) you got to hang out in the dark with cute boys. Among the many great things to come out of New Zealand (the Lord of the Rings movies, cats that paint, my mom) is a bird called the tui-not as well known as the kiwi, but a heck of a lot noisier! Tui? What kind of name is that? Is it short for something?

The amazing harry houdini