MAGICIAN

609.2 HAS

Haskins, James. Outward dreams : Black inventors and their inventions. New York:

Walker, [1991].

Note: Discusses black inventors and their contributions, including Benjamin

Bradley, Madam Walker, and George Washington Carver.

920 FRA

Fradin, Dennis Brindell. Bound for the North Star. New York: Clarion, [2000].

Note: Twelve fascinating accounts of runaway slaves who successfully escaped to the North, in some cases only after several failed attempts and recaptures, and all based on primary sources. Each chapter focuses on one person or pair of individuals.

B DISNEY

Cole, Michael D. Walt Disney: Creator of Mickey Mouse. New Jersey: Enslow: [1996].

Note: Cole begins with anecdotes from his subject's childhood and family life and continues with an account of Disney's entrance into the movie business with his brother Roy in 1923 and his later enterprises. The final chapter offers a brief look at Walt Disney Productions' achievements in the years since Disney's death.

B God

Streissguth, Tom. Rocket man : the story of Robert Goddard. Minneapolis, MN:

Carolrhoda, [1995].

Note: Details the life of the physicist who was granted 214 patents for his work

with spaceflight and exploration.

B GUTENBERG HAR

Harris, Brayton. Johann Gutenberg and the invention of printing. New York:

Watts, [1972].

Note: A biography of the man who developed printing from moveable type in the

fifteenth century.

B HICKAM

Hickam, Homer H. Rocket boys : a memoir. New York: Delacorte Press, [1998].

Note: In this uniquely American memoir, Homer Hickam beautifully captures a moment when a dying town, a divided family, and a band of teenage dreamers dared to set their sights on the stars -- and saw a future that the nation was just beginning to imagine.

B Hou

Cox, Clinton. Houdini : master of illusion. 1st ed. New York: Scholastic Press,

[2001].

Note: Chronicles the life of Harry Houdini, providing information on his

childhood, his career as a magician, the outrageous feats he attempted, and

the secrets behind some of his most daring escapes.

B Hou

Lalicki, Tom. Spellbinder : the life of Harry Houdini. 1st ed. New York: Holiday

House, [2000].

Note: An illustrated biography of late nineteenth-, early twentieth-century

American magician Harry Houdini.

B HOUDINI

Ernst, John and Abel, Ray. Escape king : the story of Harry Houdini. Englewood

Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, [1975].

Note: A simple biography of the famous magician describing his major tricks.

B LEONARDO

Kallen, Stuart A and Boekhoff, Patti M. Leonardo da Vinci. San Diego, CA: Lucent

Books, [2000].

Note: A biography of the well-known Italian Renaissance man, discussing his

personal life, artistic accomplishments, scientific observations, and final

legacy.

B LEONARDO

Nuland, Sherwin B. Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Viking, [2000].

Note: A biography of the well-known Italian Renaissance man, discussing his

personal life, artistic accomplishments, scientific observations, and final

legacy.

B MOWAT

Mowat, Farley. Born Naked. New York: Houghton Mifflin, [1993].

Note: A young Farley roamed the Canadian prairies, birding, hiking, camping, and tracking. His enthusiasm and love of the land and its animals are infectious; his knowledge, particularly of birds, is impressive. The growth of a young man is dealt with sensitively, and some of the incidents included are quite funny.

B WRIGHT

Freedman, Russell. The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane. New York: Holiday House, [1991].

Note: Freedman lays out a clear and compelling history of the early aviation experiments that culminated in the legendary flight at Kitty Hawk. Despite a four-year difference in age, the two grew up to be as close as twins, a patient bachelor pair who methodically set out to prove the possibility of powered, controlled human flight. Just as methodically, they promoted their new flying machine, made lots of money, and overcame the U. S. government's stubborn lack of interest.

Fic ALEXANDER

Alexander, Lloyd. The iron ring. 1st ed. New York: Dutton Children's Books,

[1997].

Note: Driven by his sense of "dharma," or honor, young King Tamar sets off on a

perilous journey, with a significance greater than he can imagine, during

which he meets talking animals, villainous and noble kings, demons, and the

love of his life.

Fic BEN

Bennett, James. Plunking Reggie Jackson. New York: Simon & Schuster, [2001].

Notes: High school baseball star Coley Burke tries to deal with an ankle injury, back spasms, a girlfriend, academic failure, pressure from his father, and the legacy of his dead older brother.

Fic CAM

Campbell, Eric. Shark Callers. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, [1995].

Notes: Two teenage boys, one on a shark hunt and the other traveling with his family, face the challenge of their lives when a volcano erupts, causing a massive tidal wave in the South Seas.

Fic CORMIER

Cormier, Robert. Tenderness : a novel. New York: Delacorte Press, [1997].

Note: A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial

killer and the runaway girl who falls in love with him.

FIC CRUTCHER

Crutcher, Chris. The Sledding Hill. New York: Greenwillow Books, [2005].

Note: Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, who has added to his home and school problems by becoming mute, and helps him stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.

Fic DIC

Dickinson, Peter. The ropemaker. New York: Delacorte Press, [2001].

Note: When the magic that protects their Valley starts to fail, Tilja and her

companions journey into the evil Empire to find the ancient magician Faheel,

who originally cast those spells.

Fic Ger

Geras, Adele. Troy. San Diego: Harcourt, [2001].

Note: Told from the point of view of the women of Troy, portrays the last weeks of the Trojan War, when women are sick of tending the wounded, men are tired of fighting, and bored gods and goddesses find ways to stir things up.

Fic GIL

Gilstrap, John. At all costs. New York: Warner Books, [1999].

Notes: Unjustly accused of massacring sixteen people and sparking one of the country's worst environmental catastrophes, Jake and Carolyn Donovan, and their young son, elude the FBI for years, until they finally decide to fight back.

Fic IBBOTSON

Ibbotson, Eva. The Star of Kazan. New York: Dutton’s Children Books, [2004].

Note: After twelve-year-old Annika, a foundling living in late nineteenth-century Vienna, inherits a trunk of costume jewelry, a woman claiming to be her aristocratic mother arrives and takes her to live in a strangely decrepit mansion in Germany.

Fic LEV

Levy, Robert. Escape from exile. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [1993].

Notes: Thirteen-year-old Daniel is transported to the land of Lithia, where he discovers that his ability to communicate mentally with the strange native animals makes him a key figure in the civil war there.

Fic LOWRY

Lowry, Lois. Gathering blue. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, [2000].

Note: Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid

village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to

use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians.

Fic LOW

Lowry, Lois. Messenger. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, [2004].

Note: "In this novel that unites characters from "The Giver" and "Gathering

Blue," Matty, a young member of a utopian community that values honesty,

conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain or understand.".

Fic McK

McKinley, Robin. Spindle’s End. New York: Putnam’s Sons, [2000].

Note: The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her real identity and hidden from Pernicia's vengeful powers.

Fic McD

McDevitt, Jack. Moonfall. New York: HarperCollins, {1993}.

Notes: Arriving on the moon to initiate the first moonbase, Vice President Charlie Haskell must fend for his life when the comet Tomiko heads straight for the moon, and after stating that he will be the last person to evacuate the moonbase, he desperately triesto find a means of escape.

Fic PAOLINI

Paolini, Christopher. Eldest. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, [2005].

Note: After successfully evading an Urgals ambush, Eragon is adopted into the Ingeitum clan and sent to finish his training so he can further help the Varden in their struggle against the Empire.

Fic PAULSEN

Paulsen, Gary. The Transall saga. New York, N.Y: Delacorte Press, [1998].

Note: While backpacking in the desert, thirteen-year-old Mark falls into a tube

of blue light and is transported into a more primitive world, where he must

use his knowledge and skills to survive.

Fic Pie

Pierce, Meredith Ann. Treasure at the heart of the Tanglewood. New York: Viking,

[2001].

Note: Hannah, a healer with unusual powers, leaves the wizard she has always

served and, along with her animal companions, begins a journey which

uncovers the truth about her real nature.

Fic PULLMAN

Pullman, Philip. The Amber Spyglass. Alfred A. Knopf, [2000].

Note: Lyra and Will find themselves at the center of a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by Lyra's father, Lord Asriel.

Fic PULLMAN

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Alfred A. Knopf, [1996].

Note: Accompanied by her shape-shifting demon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

Fic PULLMAN

Pullman, Philip. The Subtle Knife. 1st American ed. New York: Knopf, [1997].

Note: As the boundaries between worlds begin to dissolve, Lyra and her daemon

help Will Parry in his search for his father and for a powerful, magical

knife.

Fic WEA

Weaver, Will. Striking Out. New York: HarperCollins, [1993].

Notes: Since the death of his older brother, thirteen-year-old Billy Baggs has had a distant relationship with his father, but life on their farm in northern Minnesota begins to change when he starts to play baseball.

Fic YEP

Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1975].

Note: In the early twentieth century a young Chinese boy joins his father in San

Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine.

Fic ZINDEL

Zindel, Paul. The Amazing and Death Defying Diary of Eugene Dingman. 1st ed. New

York: Harper & Row, [1987].

Note: Fifteen-year-old Eugene Dingman records in his personal diary his summer

spent as a waiter in a hotel in the Adirondacks, learning to cope with

rejection from the girl he has a crush on as well as from his own father.

_______________________________________________________________

Other Titles Recommended but not available in the school library:

Greene, Richard. Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney. Disney Editions, [2001].

Notes: A biography, told through the captivating and vivid words of those who knew, worked with, and studied Walt Disney, provides the most revelatory portrait to date of the man who has become an icon of North American culture.

Fleishman, Sid. The Abracadabra Kid: A writer’s life. New York: Morrow, [1998].

Notes: The award-winning author of The Whipping Boy relates his own tale of life as a magician, writer, and screenwriter, accompanied by black-and-white photographs and helpful advice for would-be writers.

Peet, Bill. Bill Peet: An autobiography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [1994].

Notes: Bill Peet tells his life story, including his years with Disney, with illustrations on every page.

Shimony, Abner. Tibaldo and the Hole in the Calendar. New York: Copernicus, [1997].

Notes: Tibaldo Bondi, son of the assistant to the great Florentine physician Turisanus, is supposed to celebrate his 12th birthday on October 10, 1582. But 1582 is no ordinary year. Inaccuracies in the calendar established under Julius Caesar have been piling up for over a millennium, the equinoxes are coming earlier and earlier in the year, and Easter is inexorably drifting out of traditional season. When Pope Gregory XII decrees a long-needed calendar reform, part of the correction involves dropping ten days from the year. Social upheaval ensues. Workers will lose ten days' wages, rent payments are due only twenty days apart, and Tibaldo's birthday is lost.

Sullivan, George. Matthew Brady: His life and photographs. New York: Cobblehill, [1994].

Notes: An official photographer of the Civil War presents more than seven hundred extraordinary photographs, accompanied by a lively text that recounts the history of the war, its causes, battles, personalities, and effects.

Woog, Adam. Harry Houdini. San Diego, CA: Lucent, [1995].

Notes: Visually appealing, well-researched biographies that adequately cover the life, accomplishments, and significance of each subject and entertain as they inform. The texts are easy to read and do not use fictionalized dialogue.

Fic Cus

Cussler, Clive. Cyclops. New York, Pocket Books, [1995].

Notes: An international conspiracy is in place and Dirk Pitt is the only one to stop them. There are dead cosmonauts aboard a blimp heading for Florida and a secret base on a colony on the moon put in place by a group of American industrialists. Threatened in space, the Russians seek retaliation.

Fic HIT

Hite, Sid. Dither Farm. Topeka, KS: Econo-Clad, [1999].

Notes: A visit by an unusual aunt, a flood, a flying carpet, a kidnapping, and a groundswell of romance are all part of one summer in the lives of the close-knit Dither family in southern Virginia.

Fic LASKY

Lasky, Kathryn. The Capture. New York: Scholastic, [2003].

Note: When Soren, a barn owl, arrives at St. Aggie's, a school for orphaned owls, he suspects trouble and with his new friend, a clever elf owl named Gylfie, embarks on a perilous journey to save all owls from the danger at St. Aggie's.

Fic STR

Stroud, Jonathan. The Golem’s Eye. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, [2004].

Note: In their continuing adventures, magician's apprentice Nathaniel, now fourteen years old, and the djinni Bartimaeus travel to Prague to locate the source of a golem's power before it destroys London.

All annotations are excerpts from Amazon.com and Novelist.

More information on each title is available at either website.