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Prepare to Be Amazed by Mary Schendlinger (Annick $14.95)
When she's not transforming words into seamless prose for others-who usually get all the credit-topnotch editor Mary Schendlinger always has a few other tricks up her sleeve. As a member of a collective named Maria Von Couver, she co-wrote a book about parenting called Don't Say No - Just let Go (Arsenal, 1991). As Eve Corbel, she has also developed a reputation as a cartoonist.
Schendlinger is one of the brains-and the workers-behind Geist magazine, plus she's a member of a serious writers' sorority that meets on a regular basis to critique one another's work. Along those lines, Colleen MacMillan of Annick Press suggested there ought to be a decent kids' book about magic.
"Like most mortals I love a good magic show,"; says Schendlinger, "and another of my favourite things is to read up on people's lives."; After a year of research and a 90-degree learning curve, Schendlinger surprised herself by pulling a book out of a hat. Prepare to Be Amazed consists of 10 stories of some of the most awesome magicians from the 1840s to the present. Sorry, but the man they call Reveen doesn't make the cut. Nor do Penn & Teller. Or New Westminster-born Mandrake, who honed his act at the PNE, performed as a tuxedo-clad illusionist for 47 years, inspired the comic strip Mandrake, and died in 1993.
Schendlinger begins her survey with the man who took magic out of the carnivals and circuses and took it into the theatre, Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, a pioneer trickster not to be confused with Harry Houdini, the showman who once visited Vancouver and dangled from an office building. Along the way we also meet Chung Ling Soo, who died onstage while performing the daring Bullet Catch trick, and David Copperfield, known for his state-of-the-art magic show with lasers and live video feeds. Each magician's story is accompanied by a simple trick, in the spirit of that performer, that kids can learn. Included are:
Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin
(1805-1871)
Adelaide Herrmann (1853-1932)
Chung Ling Soo (1861-1918)
Great Lafayette (1872-1911)
Harry Houdini (1874-1926)
Harry Blackstone (1885-1965)
P. C. Sorcar (1913-1971)
Siegfried and Roy (1939-, 1944-)
Doug Henning (1947-2000)
David Copperfield (1956- )
1-55037-926-7
[BCBW 2005]
Schendlinger is one of the brains-and the workers-behind Geist magazine, plus she's a member of a serious writers' sorority that meets on a regular basis to critique one another's work. Along those lines, Colleen MacMillan of Annick Press suggested there ought to be a decent kids' book about magic.
"Like most mortals I love a good magic show,"; says Schendlinger, "and another of my favourite things is to read up on people's lives."; After a year of research and a 90-degree learning curve, Schendlinger surprised herself by pulling a book out of a hat. Prepare to Be Amazed consists of 10 stories of some of the most awesome magicians from the 1840s to the present. Sorry, but the man they call Reveen doesn't make the cut. Nor do Penn & Teller. Or New Westminster-born Mandrake, who honed his act at the PNE, performed as a tuxedo-clad illusionist for 47 years, inspired the comic strip Mandrake, and died in 1993.
Schendlinger begins her survey with the man who took magic out of the carnivals and circuses and took it into the theatre, Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, a pioneer trickster not to be confused with Harry Houdini, the showman who once visited Vancouver and dangled from an office building. Along the way we also meet Chung Ling Soo, who died onstage while performing the daring Bullet Catch trick, and David Copperfield, known for his state-of-the-art magic show with lasers and live video feeds. Each magician's story is accompanied by a simple trick, in the spirit of that performer, that kids can learn. Included are:
Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin
(1805-1871)
Adelaide Herrmann (1853-1932)
Chung Ling Soo (1861-1918)
Great Lafayette (1872-1911)
Harry Houdini (1874-1926)
Harry Blackstone (1885-1965)
P. C. Sorcar (1913-1971)
Siegfried and Roy (1939-, 1944-)
Doug Henning (1947-2000)
David Copperfield (1956- )
1-55037-926-7
[BCBW 2005]
Submitted on October 20, 2005 in By David.
