Born:
March  16, 1920
Brooklyn, New York,
United States Of America

Current Home:
Santa Monica, California,
United States Of America

Sid Fleischman

Biography

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Watch a video interview with Sid Fleischman.

Sid Fleischman, Newbery Award-winning children's author, saw a magician for the first time when he was in fifth grade and was enthralled. For most children, fascination with magic is a passing fancy, but for Fleischman, it has stayed with him over the years.

In fact, after high school he toured as a professional magician until he served an active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II. Fleischman then went on to college and after graduation, worked as a reporter at the San Diego Daily Journal, until the paper folded in 1950.

Fleischman later turned to fiction writing, where one can detect the ongoing influence of magic in his life. Fleischman plots stories with a magician's mind; he's able to peer around corners and find surprises where they hadn't been before.

He says he first began writing for young people because his own children wondered what he did for a living. Other fathers left in the morning and returned home at night, but he was around the house all day long typing a lot. “I decided to clear up the mystery and wrote a book just for them.” Fleischman read each chapter aloud after he finished it, and his children made comments and suggestions, many of which he used. Writing his first book for children was a family activity.

For Fleischman, finding names for his characters and books is great fun. He says, “I collect interesting names, funny names, and outrageous nicknames, and sometimes the name itself helps me to create a character.” Fleischman's Jingo Django, an ALA Notable book, provides some examples. Characters include: Mrs. Daggatt from the orphan house, who hires out Jingo Hawks as a chimney sweep to the awful General Dirty-Face Scurlock.

Sid Fleischman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in San Diego, California. He currently lives near the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, CA, in the same house he has lived in for 40 years. He has written more than 50 books for adults as well as for children — some of which have been made into movies.

Fleischman has a special place in his heart for children's books. He says, “The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever — they have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph, and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work.”

Visit Sid Fleischman's Web site.

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  	The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman and Peter Sis In this Newbery Medal book, Jemmy is an orphan who has been taken by a royal family to be Prince Brat's whipping boy. But when Prince Brat is bored, he decides to run away and take Jemmy with him. Now Jemmy is blamed for kidnapping the prince, and the two boys really get taken hostage by two evil villains! $4.95 Paperback Book | Grades 3-5

  
  The Whipping Boy
  Grades 3-5 $4.95
  
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  The King of Slippery Falls by Sid Hite Lewis Hinton is in pursuit of two things - an elusive giant trout, and his true identity. His adoptive parents know they must let him search for clues to his past. And everyone in Slippery Falls is determined to discover if the letter from Lewis's birth mother confirms the rumor: Is he descended from French loyalty? Could this simple boy from Idaho really be a king? $16.95 Hardcover Book | Grades 7-12

  
  The King of Slippery Falls
  Grades 7-12 $16.95