Never Mind The Death

Pop culture blog Egotastic has a few words on authors who have died and those authors who have picked up where the previous pen fell. John and Brad are mentioned, as are a number of other well-known names:

Poll: Your Favorite Edward Gorey Artwork in "House"

Edward Gorey created 12 full page illustrations for The House with a Clock in its Walls and, in celebration of its 40th anniversary, we want to know which one is your favorite.

Is it Lewis standing at the coat rack looking at a mysterious Mexican pyramid, Jonathan eclipsing the moon in his backyard, or Lewis, his uncle, Jonathan, and Mrs. Zimmermann out for a late night ride on the back roads of rural Michigan. Or something else?

Pick your favorite from our list below and see how it ranks with other fans.

Lewis Barnavelt, Fat-Positive Role Model?

We stumbled upon a blog post recently that Rebecca Rabinowitz wrote for the Shapely Prose blog a few years ago about fat-positive children’s books (parts one and two). Her criteria was to find overweight main characters and those portrayed in a positive light. A comment on part one brings Bellairs into the mix, mentioning briefly Lewis’ weight issues:

He Was Wont To Shine At Seventy-Five

John celebrates his semisesquicentennial birthday this year. Hmmm...while that Latin does sound impressive, "75th birthday" actually sounds more practical.

Cheers, John!

Who’s Who: John Stoddard

A book Lewis finds in his uncle’s house is Volume IX of Stoddard's Lectures, labeled "Scotland, England, and London" [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 18-9].

Librarian Shares Her Love Of Reading

An interview with Spreckels Elementary School librarian Libby Foucht who still believes that one of the best ways of turning non-readers into readers is to read aloud to them, according to this Jan. 3 story from the California.com. Of note:

BiblioFile: A Maldição do Relógio

The works of John Bellairs branched into Portugal with A Maldição do Relógio released by Editorial Presence in 2006. From what we can tell, however, the introduction was short-lived as this is the only book that was published and nothing more ever followed.  That's too bad - if anything, it gives us a sense of how popular the book was for that country's readers.