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Spirit Sleuths: How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes - Hardcover

Jarrow, Gail

 
9781662680236: Spirit Sleuths: How Magicians and Detectives Exposed the Ghost Hoaxes
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1662680236 ISBN 13: 9781662680236
Verlag: Calkins Creek, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

A School Library Journal Best Book
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2024
2025 Texas Topaz List
CCBC Choices 2025
2025 Capitol Choices

The latest from acclaimed author Gail Jarrow reveals how magicians—including Harry Houdini and his team of investigators—exposed fake mediums who exploited the vulnerable and gullible in the early twentieth century.

★ Shelf Awareness, starred review
★ School Library Journal, starred review

After millions of people died during World War I and from the 1918 influenza pandemic, the popularity of Spiritualism soared. Desperate to communicate with their dead loved ones, the bereaved fell prey to extortion by fraudulent mediums and fortune-tellers.

But magician Harry Houdini wasn't fooled. He recognized the scammers' methods as no more than conjurer's tricks. Angered by the way people were exploited, Houdini set out to expose the ghost hoaxes. In his stage show, he revealed the fraudsters’ techniques, and he used a team of undercover investigators to collect proof of séance deceptions. His head secret agent was a young New York private detective and disguise expert, Rose Mackenberg—a woman who continued her ghost-busting career for decades, long after Houdini's death in 1926.

Ideal for young readers and adults who are drawn to the worlds of psychics and magicians, this riveting book uncovers a little-known chapter in American history and details the ways people were (and still are) deceived by mediums and fortune-tellers.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gail Jarrow is the author of nonfiction books and novels for readers ages 8–18. Her nonfiction books have earned the Sibert Honor, the Orbis Pictus Honor, the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, YALSA Finalist, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book, Outstanding Science Trade Book, a NSTA Best STEM book, the Jefferson Cup Award, the Eureka! Gold Award, as well as Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal Best Books and VOYA Honor Book distinctions.

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CHAPTER ONE 
 
A VISIT WITH GHOSTS
 
“I there witnessed physical manifestations which demonstrated to me beyond all doubt that they were not produced by mortal hands.”—Judge J. W. Edmonds, 1853
 
The room feels spooky as soon as you walk in.

Heavy maroon curtains cover the windows. The carpet muffles your footsteps. You catch a whiff of incense. 
 
Your host invites you to sit with her at a round mahogany table along with eight other visitors. She tells everyone in the circle to join hands. 
 
The lights are turned off. You can see nothing. A bell jingles, first on one side of the room, then the other, and finally near your head. 
 
You hear knocks on the wooden table. Your host announces that the spirits have arrived. “Does anyone have a question for them?” she says. 
 
The man to your left asks whether his friend is happy in the spirit world. 
 
Two knocks.

“The spirits reply ‘yes,’” the host explains.

Several people in the circle inquire about a dead relative, their money troubles, or their love life. Each time, the ghosts answer with knocks. 
 
Tiny lights flicker above the table and dart around the room. A tambourine rattles in the blackness. 
 
Suddenly, the table rises, tilts to the side, then thuds back to the floor. The next moment, you feel your chair rise, too. For a few seconds, you’re floating. 
 
A glistening white hand appears a few feet away. You feel your hair being pulled. Something clammy touches your cheek. A chill runs down your spine. 
 
Above the table, a shining horn appears in the darkness. It turns toward the woman across from you, and an eerie voice comes from the trumpet. “Your daughter is with you,” it murmurs. The woman sobs. 
 
Then you notice a shimmery white form in a corner of the room. It’s the size and shape of a man, and he has a face. When the woman next to you screams, the figure instantly vanishes. 
Have you just seen a ghost? Have you heard a spirit talk?
 
Nearly 175 years ago, scientists, magicians, journalists, and detectives began investigating whether ghosts existed. Many people condemned them for asking the question. Others tried to keep the truth hidden. That didn’t stop the spirit sleuths. 
 
Their search for answers required quick wits, ingenuity, and pluck. What they discovered was shocking and surprising. But was it supernatural? 
 
This is their story.

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Verlag
Calkins Creek
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1662680236
ISBN 13 
9781662680236
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
176
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Verantwortliche Person
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