All It Took Was Just One Book

Amy Mascott is the creator of teachmama.com, where she shares tools and resources parents can use to become the best teachers for their children. As part of her All it Took was Just One Book series she asked blogger Amy Kraft to write a post about a great "spooktacular book for October."  Kraft writes about children’s media in her blog, Media Macaroni, and has reviewed Bellairs' books in the past. Here she says her favorite book as a child was The House with a Clock in its Walls:

Written a generation before Harry Potter, The House With a Clock in its Walls tells the story of young Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan who soon discovers that the uncle he has come to live with is a wizard. Before long, Lewis tries his hand at wizardry, too, in this wonderful book of magic and mystery.

This book was very special to me–it felt like the first book that was mine and no one else’s, as though it was a discovery only I had made. Lewis is kind of an awkward kid, and so was I. It was easy to put myself in his shoes, feeling shivers up my spine as I went on adventures with him.

It’s a scary book, and I felt proud for reading it without getting too scared. Some of the imagery is so haunting (aided by the creepy illustrations by Edward Gorey), that it has always stayed with me, especially this scene where Lewis is trying to raise the dead to impress his new friend, Tarby.