Newbery Medalist Sid Fleischman knew the secret of dealing with reluctant young readers: hook 'em with humor.

Humor is the thread that runs through all of the dozens of children's books written by Mr. Fleischman, who died March 17, the day after his 90th birthday. In his picture books, biographies and novels -- including his Newbery-winning book, "The Whipping Boy," Mr. Fleischman demonstrates his understanding that making kids laugh guaranteed they'd keep turning the pages.

If you've got a reluctant reader at home, try a Fleischman book. Here's a brief sampler:

• "It was a week before we got out the next issue of The Humbug Mountain Hoorah. First we had to dig up the petrified man." ("Humbug Mountain")

• Cutwater (a character in "The Whipping Boy") "had hollow cheeks and a nose like a meat cleaver."

• "I am astonished, when I pause to think about it, to discover myself to be an author of humorous novels for children. Or an author at all. I had a childhood much like everyone else's. What went wrong?" ("The Abracadabra Kid," Mr. Fleischman's autobiography).

As Mr. Fleischman said in a 1997 interview with the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch: "Humor is the oxygen of children's literature. There's a lot of competition for children's time, but even kids who hate to read want to read a funny book."

In another interview, quoted in "Children's Books and Their Creators," Mr. Fleischman noted that, over his years as a children's author, he watched "the status of humor in children's novels change immensely.

"In my first story, 'Mr. Mysterious & Company' [published in 1962] ... I was asked to take out some of the humor, because editors were afraid reviewers would dismiss the book as a joke. Today humor is enjoyed and no longer regarded as literary brummagem."

Growing up in San Diego, Mr. Fleischman didn't set out to be a children's writer -- or any kind of writer. His first career was as a magician, a profession that had captivated him since childhood. He was a self-taught magician, learning magic tricks from books in the library.

Mr. Fleischman's first book actually was about a collection of magic tricks he created. Titled "Between Cocktails," it was published when he was 19.

After serving in World War II, Mr. Fleischman began writing novels for adults in 1950, when the San Diego newspaper for which he was working went out of business. He later was asked to turn one of his suspense novels, "Blood Alley," into a screenplay for a 1955 movie that starred John Wayne and Lauren Bacall.

Mr. Fleischman wrote several other screenplays before being inspired to write children's books by one of his three kids. As he later recalled the incident in his Newbery acceptance speech, his daughter Jane came home one day from the library proudly bearing the autograph of children's author/illustrator Leo Politi.

" 'You know,' Mrs. Fleischman pointed out, 'Daddy writes books, too.' "

" 'Yes,' Jane replied. 'But no one reads his books.' "

Galvanized by Jane's comment, Mr. Fleischman decided to write a book just for his family. In "The Abracadabra Kid," he writes that "a title flashed across my mind and I typed it out. Mr. Mysterious & Company. ... I improvised an opening. ... I found the story and stumbled into the wondrous world of children's books."

At first, Mr. Fleischman hesitated to send the manuscript to his agent. Finally, he mailed "Mr. Mysterious" with a note: "I seem to have written a children's book. If you don't care to read it, I will understand. Drop it into the wastebasket."

Instead, the agent sent it to an editor at Atlantic Monthly Press in Boston who, as Mr. Fleischman writes in "The Abracadabra Kid," "read it in bed that night and accepted it the first thing in the morning."

Mr. Fleischman was off and running in a new career.

Over the years, he published a number of well-received books for kids, including a series of tall-tale picture books starring farmer Josh McBroom and novels like "Jim Ugly," "Chancy and the Rascal," "Bandit Moon" and, of course, the Newbery Medal-winning "The Whipping Boy." He also wrote biographies about Mark Twain and Harry Houdini; his biography of Charlie Chaplin is due out in April.

One of Mr. Fleischman's greatest literary legacies, however, isn't a book. It's his son, Paul Fleischman, who also won a Newbery Medal, in 1989, for his book "Joyful Noise." The two Fleischmans are the only father and son to have won Newbery Medals.

When his father won the Newbery Medal, Paul Fleischman paid him homage by noting: "My father's specialty in magic is sleight of hand. ... This style of magic is reflected in his writing. ... He knows how to keep an audience guessing, how to create suspense, how to keep readers reading."

First Published: April 6, 2010, 8:00 a.m.