THE ABRACADABRA KID

Subtitled "A Writer's Life," this is a lively self-portrait of the writer as a young magician turned conjurer of "literary magic tricks." The son of an "airy optimist with nimble skills" and a mother who was a "crackerjack penny-ante cardplayer," Fleischman grew up enterprising and obsessed with magic. In high school he parlayed "a certain knack for inventing tricks" into a slim volume of match tricks that became an enduring classic, then did a stint in vaudeville in a ten-dollar tux and a hitch in the wartime navy. There's a postwar tour of duty in China, and years as a newspaperman, pulp-fiction writer, and screenwriter before a happy marriage and three kids drew him to the realm of children's books. Fleischman offers a gold mine of interesting reflections of writing, and a vivid representation of a life lived adventurously and thoughtfully. (Autobiography. 12+)