Joe Holiday, an award winning Atlantic City based magician who has performed both nationally and internationally, visited the West Penn Elementary School on recently with his Books: The Magic is Real! educationally based show.

The show encourages children to read by using popular children's books as the basis for an energetic, fun-based illusion act featuring a stuffed snake jumping out of a basket and a talking dry erase board, among other acts featured during the assembly.Now in his third year visiting the children of the Tamaqua Area School District, Joe's educational act, which is currently in its eighth year overall, is also performed at over 100 schools each year in the Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey areas.In addition to two shows performed for the students at West Penn, which were sponsored by the school's Parent-teacher Organization, Holiday performed at Rush Elementary on Monday, March 29, and Tamaqua Elementary on Tuesday March 30.