Book review: The Curse of the Blue FigurineHiding from a bully in the church basement, Johnny takes what looks like a book and proves to be a box containing a scroll and a small blue figurine that looks like an Egyptian ushabti. These, plus a ring given him by a seemingly kindly man he meets, Mr. Beard, are the magic objects that put him in unhappy thrall to a ghost, for "Mr. Beard" is the ghost of a mad rector of the Catholic church in which the ushabti had been secreted. Johnny's friend the professor takes him to a psychiatrist (a stereotyped character) who tries to help; the professor takes Johnny off on a trip to help him forget his worries, and they are followed by the ghost, who endangers both their lives; they are saved by a rock slide precipitated by an earthquake. Bellairs is not at his best here; the story is concocted, the realism and fantasy don't mesh, the characters are flatly depicted, and the style is intermittently labored. What's left to appeal to the reader are the action, the suspense, and the occult.
Zena SutherlandBulletin of the Center for Children's BooksVol. 36, No. 10. June, 1983, p. 183.
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