Something About Summer Reading

NPR has a list of librarian Nancy Pearl's options for kids - and parents – for reading this summer in the downtime between Harry Potter adventures. Her choices " range from new releases of proven classics to new, irreverent and witty fantasy books that cross boundaries of genre and age." Titles include long-time favorite The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer, the tale of three children in a futuristic Zimbabwe.

Encouraging Boys to Love Books

 Author Jon Scieszka has spent his adult life trying to encourage young boys to read. The former teacher and the author of more than 20 children’s books says treating boys and girls the same in school just doesn’t work. Read part of an interview at NPR and excerpts from his literacy program or visit the guysread website.

Go, Bid Thy GothGirlsCloset

Longtime ebay seller gothgirlscloset has 26 John Bellairs books (and those later completed and written by Brad Strickland) for sale. She notes many titles are almost out of print in this format with the Edward Gorey illustrations. These are all first editions, with many books being first printings and are a mixture of ex-library and brand new books, most in very good to excellent condition! Definitely a look-see for any collector.

Book Alert: Le Crâne du Sorcier

The fourth book in the French Johnny Dixon series has been published: Le crâne du sorcier. It follows Le secret de la salle souterraine, published this February.

Great Reckonings In Little Rooms

We received an email earlier this month from a writer for the British magazine Dolls House and Miniature Scene who is working on a forthcoming article about the use of dollhouses in fiction. We’re told that John's The Spell Of The Sorcerer's Skull will be mentioned in the piece, in reference to the Childermass Clock:

Memoriam: Saul Bellow

Author Saul Bellow died April 5 in Massachusetts. He was 89. Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and was the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction three times.

Researching the Tropical Hut

When it comes to learning about some of John’s exploits in Chicago one of the better sources is his friend and fellow adventurer, Bob Yaple, who shared the names of some of the restaurants and bars that he and John visited during their graduate school days of the early 1960s.

Greetings From Barnavelt House

If you’re into the Sims games, stop by Mt. Geneva and visit Barnavelt House, a rendering partly inspired by the Cronin House in Marshall, Michigan by Sims fan Jen:

Trenches, Shards and Blogs

A short way down the street stood the professor’s gray stucco house. The professor stood in the driveway burning notebooks and papers. A heap of them was smoldering near his feet and sending up clouds of thick, whitish smoke. The professor reached into the cardboard box he was holding and pitched another fistful of white and blue sheets into the flames.
The professor grimaced and shook a bunch of papers in Fergie’s face. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m cleaning out the back room of my study, something that has needed doing for ages." [The Eyes of the Killer Robot, 39-40].

Review: House "A Focus On the More Basic Fears"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

An Endangered Book

Ann La Pietra, owner of the kids' shop book store in Marshall, Michigan, brings word that The Doom of the Haunted Opera may be going out of print for good.

Book Alert: Le Secret de la Salle Souterraine

Some news from France: The third book in Les aventures de Johnny Dixon will be Le secret de la salle souterraine to be published in February 2005.

We realize that The Secret of the Underground Room is actually the eighth Johnny Dixon book in the series but it has jumped up to book three in the French series. Lalex, the illustrator of the French books, notes on her website that the fourth book will probably be The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull but no release date has been set.

Book Alert: La Tour de La Fin du Monde

The French edition of the The Tower at the End of the World, with cover art by Lalex, is to be published next June. This is book #9 in the Kévin et les magiciens series.

Holidays in Marshall

If you find yourself in Michigan at any point during the remainder of the year, John Bellairs's hometown is celebrating the holiday season with their annual Christmas Parade, Nov. 29, 2004. It's a traditional delight that's highlighted by many bands, dozens of floats, horses and lots of marching units all out to help usher in the holiday.

Compleat Bellairs offline

The Compleat Bellairs website is (temporarily?) offline. Comments from founder Jonathan Abucejo on October 21 noted that the server administrator had recently cut costs and "one of those costs was hosting my sites for free. I've sent an e-mail to the original server hosts and have been waiting for a response from them, in terms of pricing and such. Haven't received word yet."

A week later, on October 26, Abucejo again posted to the compleatbellairs discussion group that he had yet to receive a reply from the other server host. "It may be time to look at other avenues; however, that hosting service has all the most recent Interactive Board submissions. It's vital that I get that from them even if they don't choose to host the Compleat Bellairs anymore!"