Albert Sidney Fleischman (born Avron Zalmon Fleischman, March 16, 1920 – March 17, 2010) was an American writer.
He is best known for his children's books, which include The Whipping Boy (1987 Newbery Medal winner), McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm, and The Ghost in the Noonday Sun.
His works with their own trope pages include:
His other works provide examples of:
- Fantasy Americana: Several of Fleischman's books take place in frontier times.
- Fearsome Critters of American Folklore: Appear in several of the McBroom books.
- Gold Fever: The California gold rush of 1849 is the setting of By the Great Horn Spoon!
- In Which a Trope Is Described: The chapter titles in The Ghost in the Noonday Sun.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Josh and Melissa McBroom have eleven kids — Will, Jill, Hester, Chester, Peter, Polly, Tim, Tom, Mary, Larry, and Little Clarinda. Josh tends to rattle their names off at least once a book.
- The Münchausen: Possibly Josh McBroom, and by extension, definitely Fleischman himself.
- Popcorn on the Cob: In one of the McBroom tall tales, the weather becomes so hot that corn starts popping right off the stalks in the fields.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: Discussed in Fleischman's memoir The Abracadabra Kid as a way of avoiding such plot holes— "If you see a hole in your story, point it out". When writing a story about the McBrooms dealing with the Hidebehind, a monster that nobody can describe because it hides behind something as soon as you turn your head, Fleischman wondered why someone couldn't just look in a mirror to see it. He had the father say that he did try carrying a mirror around, but "The Hidebehind was just too danged clever to fall for it."
- Stage Magician: Mr. Mysterious in Mister Mysterious and Company, Fleischman's first children's book. (Fleischman himself started his career doing stage magic acts in nightclubs.)
- Wallet Moths: Used as a plot point in the first McBroom story; Josh McBroom buys a seemingly worthless farm for everything in his wallet, and when it turns out to be valuable land, the swindler who sold the land demands it back, saying that McBroom still owes him the moths that flew out when he handed over the money.
