Sid Fleischman published over sixty books for kids, adults, and magicians. The Newbery Medal for his novel The Whipping Boy was one of his many honors. In his memoirs The Abracadabra Child, the author recalled his wasted adolescence as a magician and newspaperman. The Performer and the Dybbuk, a fiction, and three biographies, Sir Charlie: Chaplin, The Funniest Man in the World; The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West; and Escape!, are among his other works.