Houdini+Box

Houdini Box by Brian Selznick
 * Police from around the world couldn't keep him in their jails, and the oceans and the seas couldn't drown him.
 * Everyone was wonderstruck by him, but children were especially delighted.
 * He found his grandmother's trunk and closed himself inside.
 * But he never got ot five thousand.
 * So during bath time, he put his head underwater and counted as fast as he could.
 * He almost broke the lamp, the table, a few pictures, and his nose-- but he didn't make it to the other side.
 * Maybe a weekend in the country would calm him down.
 * He was filled with questions, millions and billions of questions, but which should he ask first?
 * No one has ever asked me so many questions in such a short amount of time.
 * Give me the tag from your suitcase.
 * PHYSICAL CLUE--- luggage tag
 * I'll write you a letter. Wait. Just you wait.
 * You want me to tell you things I can't talk about in the middle of a busy train station, son.
 * When you are a boy expecting the secrets of the world to arrive in the mail, it is almost impossible to be patient.
 * A thousand secrets await you. come to my house.
 * He stood silently, staring at the sad woman in the light of the doorway.
 * In all of his excitement, he had forgotten that tonight was Halloween!
 * She asked him to please wait inside, and vanished up the staircase into the library, a dark place alive with books and dust and magical things.
 * Imagine, as you read this, how it would feel if you had one dream, one hope, one mysterious wish, and then saw it disappear into thin air.
 * One chilly day, several years later, they were playing ball in a large field near a graveyard behind their house.
 * It was nearing dark, and there was time for just one more try.
 * He closed his eyes, and at exactly the right moment, he swung his bat.
 * It wasn't until he traced the first letters with his fingers that he understood what he was reading.
 * He was out of breath and crazy with excitement, but he couldn't tell his wife or son what was going on.
 * The water had rusted through the tiny thing completely.
 * He departed this life in 1938
 * There is no reward.
 * This is a work of fiction, or at least I thought it was when I first wrote the book.
 * This statement, I believe, is stil true.
 * Born on March 24, 1874, in Budapes, Hungary, he was the fifth son of a poor rabbi.
 * His mother said he never cried as a baby, and as a child he was a natural athlete.
 * Audiences screamed and fainted and cheered.
 * They believed his sweat was their sweat.
 * He reminded people that anything was possible.
 * He performed for four more shows during the next three days before the finally collapsed backstage, and was taken to the hospital.
 * Politicians and babies and pets have all been compared to him.
 * Every year people gather at his grave at 1:26 pm on Halloween-- the exact time and date of his death.
 * Reporters and photographers are always there to cover the event, and sometimes guests bearing flowers attend as well.
 * I was very excited about this assignmen, because when I was a kid, he was my hero.
 * The great thing about writing sotries, though, is you can make anything that you want happen.
 * We only had seven days to make this entire project.
 * I handed in my project and got a pretty good grade-- I think.
 * He took me under his wing and sent me home every night with bags of books.
 * Those memories were enough for me to work with in college.
 * But to my surprise the head was missing when I arrived at the grave.
 * But I decided that the drawing didn't need any words at all.
 * After I finish each drawing, I tape it up to my wall so I can see how they all look together.
 * If you scream while you do this trick, it helps with the illusion, and it also freaks people out.
 * I also wanted to feel that somehow, he approved of me.
 * I bent over and brushed the dirt away and found...a sign!
 * All it said was care. I pulled the plaque out of the dirt.
 * I loved how simple and direct it was. it was like a command.
 * Shouldn't we treat the people in our lives with care?
 * The marker I found was a reminder for the groundskeeper that someone had bought perpetual care the grave.