Memoriam: Atha Tehon

Atha Tehon Thiras, credited professionally as Atha Tehon, was the award-winning children’s book designer and art director at Dial Books for Young Readers from 1969 to her retirement in 2001.  She died Feb. 15.

Alert: Johnny Dixon & eReads

We’ve discovered the four additional books in the Johnny Dixon series have been released by eReads. The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie and the three titles written by Brad Strickland - The Hand of Necromancer, The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder and The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost - all have colorful covers similar to the other titles in the eReads editions of the series.

Who's Who: Marius Ambrose

When Anthony and Miss Eells stumble upon an all-too-familiar mansion in New Stockholm, Wisconsin, they discover its former owner, Marius Ambrose, disappeared mysteriously in the mid-1930s [The Mansion in the Mist; 105].

Memoriam: Laurie Main

Australian actor Laurence "Laurie" Main died February 8. He was 89.

Dickens, Schuler & Bellairs

We’re celebrating the 200th anniversary of celebrated author Charles Dickens’s birth this year. Born February 7, 1812, in Landport, Portsmouth, England, Dickens created a plethora of memorable characters with whimsical names across a dozen major novels and numerous short stories. In a 1983 autobiographical sketch, John Bellairs confessed to being quite a fan and "read[ing] and re-read[ing] Dickens" often, as well as mixing "the everyday and the fantastic" into his own books: "...the common ordinary stuff - the bullies, the scaredy-cat kid Lewis, the grown-ups, the everyday incidents - all come from my own experience."

Time Capsule: Feb. 1952

February, 1952: Come one, come all! Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire beckons you to visit the quintessential New England village, complete with the prominent town common and twelve surrounding homes all on the National Register for Historic Places.

Bibliofile: Das Gesicht im Eis

When you think of foreign language editions of John’s work the first thing that doesn’t come to mind is The Face in the Frost. The adventures of Lewis and Johnny (and Anthony, once) are the usual tales translated for overseas readers, not the escapades of Prospero and Roger Bacon, the two main characters in a story that seemed crammed with wizards because they were wizards. This was rectified with the publication of Das Gesicht im Eis in 2009.

Who’s Who: Simon Legree

In an attempt to persuade Anthony to become a library page, Miss Eells assures him that she is no Simon Legree [The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn; 18].

Time Capsule: 1962

1962: We all know Bellairs was fond of awkward architecture...this year we’re celebrating fifty years since the completion of one of the craziest cathedrals to ever have been dreamt up.

Fans on the Fence About "The Adventures of Tintin"

The GeekOut blog has an essay on why Tintinologists and fans are on the fence about the recent "The Adventures of Tintin" movie:

Alert: Johnny Dixon & SF Gateway

In what probably will be our last post for 2011, we make note of yet another round of Bellairs e-books. Yes, we mentioned the American editions published by eReads earlier this summer and now we’re pleased to pass word along about the UK counterparts.

Review: Dolphin Cross "A Tantalizing Glimpse of What Might Have Been"

Book review: "The Dolphin Cross"

Time Capsule: 1885

December 21, 1885: The sight of a comet, a brightly-lit fireball, blazing across the darkness of space can be a memorable and awe-inspiring scene. That’s just what happened 126 years ago tonight when such a chunk of rock landed on the Clabbernong Farm in Capharnaum County.

Where's There: Sorin Hall

John Bellairs describes this Notre Dame dormitory as "South Bend's answer to the House of Usher" with one room being “at least 15 feet high, its exact height being a mystery because of the ever-present cloud formations, and...decorated to resemble a cross between a Victorian tenement and a Pompeian attic [the beginning: a little too much about the author; Oct. 3, 1958].

Chapter Thirteen Witch Craft

Hey, friends, it’s your ol’ pal, Broteus. I figured it was time for another check into the Bellairsia question box. 

On to the search results.