Jack and Annie travel back in time to Coney Island in the early 1900s, where their mission is to find a "secret of greatness" from stage magician Harry Houdini. The conflict in this story comes less from their historical time travel and more from sibling squabbles: they're supposed to be a team, but Annie keeps making decisions without consulting or listening to Jack, which makes him angry. Luckily, the two make up just in time to go onstage as Houdini's opening act. ( )

Jack and Annie take a trip to Coney Island in their magic treehouse to learn a secret of greatness from the Great Houdini. They know when they get to Coney Island that they need to buy tickets to see the Great Houdini's magic show before they sell out, but as soon as they arrive, they're fascinated by all of the greatest rides in the world and greatest foods in the world. Annie convinces Jack to eat a hot dog, ice cream, and ride a ride before they go and buy tickets for the magic show. While they're eating ice cream, they meet a sweet couple on a bench, Bess and Harry, who are also attending the magic show. When Jack and Annie finally get to the box office to buy tickets, the show is already sold out. Luckily, the theatre was in desperate need of an opening act so Annie convinced the theatre owner to let Jack and her be the opening act. Jack and Annie used magic mist to turn themselves into talented magicians for their opening act. After their act, they tried to talk to the Great Houdini before his magic act, but he was nowhere to be found. Since Houdini didn't show up for his magic act, Jack and Annie had to stall until he got there, but their magic mist expires after an hour. Shortly after Jack and Annie stepped back onto the stage, their magic mist had expired. Luckily, the Great Houdini finally showed up, but he looked familiar. It was Bess and Harry! After the show, Jack and Annie met back up with Bess and Harry, who shared that hard work was a secret of greatness.

This is a great book for young students just beginning to read novels. This book of adventure and magic will be one that students won't want to put down! ( )

Great for early readers.

Jack and Annie go on a mission to find Houdini's secret of greatness. They go to Coney Island in New York and need to get tickets to his show. Annie wants to do other things first, but Jack doesn't want to. They end up doing a few things and by the time they go to buy tickets they are sold out. Annie volunteers them to be the opening act, since the opening act ran away, but Jack is mad at her about this and doesn't want to. They put on the magic show with the help of magic dust. Houdini fails to show up so they go back on stage and embarrass themselves since the magic dust has run out. Then, Houdini shows up and puts on a great show. Afterwards, they still hadn't found the secret of greatness so they find Houdini and Bess and she is able to say that the secret is hard work. They are then able to go back home, but they show Houdini a magic act he's never seen when they disappear in their treehouse. ( )

I enjoyed the unexpected mini-twist at the end. I'm also loving the effect the mists are having on the plot. ( )