Originally published in 1973, I read The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs when I was in sixth grade. (Not too long after it had come out.) It had been extremely popular with my friends the year before, but I was too much of a chicken to pick it up! What people were saying about it–a clock beating like a heart in the walls of a creepy house? The ghost of an evil wizard haunting a person? Spells involving a dead man’s hand? Yikes! Not for me, I thought.
But my friends persisted, and finally I picked it up. It’s still one of the best – and creepiest – books I can remember reading!
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I have to admit, I could not stand hearing a clock tick at night after reading this book. My sister had a wind-up alarm clock, and I had to hide it under towels in the closet for a couple years afterward!
The trilogy that started with The House with a Clock in Its Walls continues with The Figure in the Shadows and concludes with The Letter, the Witch and the Ring. (so you know Lewis survives at least another two books!) Each title is equally as creepy, but has a whole new situation that Lewis manages to get involved in. Luckily, he is resourceful, even when threatened by a variety of supernatural creatures. Several adventures were added later, both by Bellairs and by Todd Strickland, who took over the books when John Bellairs died.
John Bellairs was a local author who lived in Lincoln and wrote several series about kids who became wrapped up in spooky circumstances involving things like zombies, living statues and time-traveling trolley cars. I met him once; he was a very unusual man. His books opened the world of reading to many kids who didn’t like to read, and I think we have his success to thank for series like Goosebumps, and authors like R. L. Stine.
Other series he wrote include the Johnny Dixon Mysteries and the Anthony Monday Mysteries (my favorite is The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn, which also includes one of the best librarian characters in kids’ books!)
But remember–if you’re looking for a book that will leave you checking under your bed, hiding ticking clocks and locking your windows every night, try The House with a Clock in Its Walls. It’s creepy, it’s funny, and you won’t be able to put it down. And after you read it, let me know what you think!
Kelly
(Ed. note: It's Brad Strickland, and Bellairs lived in Haverhill.)
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