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Summary: My all time favorite book, because.....
Review: ..Lewis, the main character in the book, is FAT....just like me bhwahahhahaha. Seriously, i adore this book ever since i read it awhile back ago. It scare me alot like no other book ever did. I had nightmare where a clock is ticking inside the house and i was chubby Lewis, trying to find a way to save the world from destruction. I think i hid under the bed in my nightmares but that is another story. I saw the made for saturday movie based on the book but it was nowhere as scary. Read the book and be forewarn... it will scare you senseless. I am scared just by thinking about it. John Bellairs knows how to write a good scarefest with exact detail and heartfelt suspense. I have read his other books on the Lewis saga and enjoy every one but this one started it all. Check out Edward Gorey's illustration...this guy is good! Well that's enough...now give it a read....and be terrified!!!
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Summary: Time Really Flies with This Ghost Story
Review: Poor Lewis...He's recently lost both parents, he's fat, and he's going to live with Uncle Jonathan, a relative he's never met. Lewis discovers that Uncle Jonathan is basically a nice guy, but a little weird. And something about his house is weird too. It's full of clocks, but one of them in particular keeps ticking...and ticking...and ticking...and no one knows where it is. 'The House with a Clock in its Walls' is a genuinely creepy story with strange, likable characters. Several humorous, light touches run throughout the book, but the scary scenes really deliver. Any kid (or adult) who enjoys the Harry Potter books will find this book a welcome addition to their reading while they wait for the next J.K. Rowling outing. Although the book is for both boys and girls, the book will especially attract boys who may not be interested in sports. Highly recommended. 179 pages with great illustrations by Edward Gorey
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Summary: THE HOSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS
Review: THE hOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS.THE SETTING TAKES PLACE IN nEWNEBEE. THE MAJOR CHARACTERS ARE LOUIS, UNCLE JONATHAN, MRS. ZIMMERMAN,TARBY AND MR. AND MRS.IZARD. THE FASCINATING EVENT OF AN MAGICAL ECLIPS OF THE MOON AND THE RISE OF THE DEAD. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANY ONE THAT LIKE WISARDS, MAGIC AND MYSTERY. THIS BOOK A BOOK THAT YOU PICK UP A WON'T PUT DOWN BOOK.
ASHLEY
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Summary: Fun, scary read for fright fans!
Review: Louis Barnavelt, recently orphaned, goes to live with his UncleJonathan, whom he's never met. When his arrives in New Zebedee, UncleJonathan picks him up at the airport and takes him to his home--a huge, spooky mansion with secret passages and mysterious rooms. Uncle Jonathan's best friend, Mrs. Zimmerman, is in the house, and as Louis walks in, he finds her listening to the walls. To his astonishment and delight, Louis discovers that Uncle Jonathan is a wizard, Mrs. Zimmerman is a witch, and they both love poker and chocolate chip cookies. Louis also discovers that Uncle Jonathan's house was once owned by an evil wizard--a Mr. Izzard who has hidden a magic clock somewhere in the walls of the house--a clock that will bring about the end of the world if it's not found and silenced. To make matters worse, Louis tries to impress his new friend Tarby by stealing a spell from one of Uncle Jonathan's magic books. They perform the ceremony in the graveyard Halloween night, and succeed in resurrecting the truly evil Mrs. Izzard from the dead. Can they stop the clock in time, or will Mrs. Izzard succeed in resurrecting her husband and bringing about the end of the world? I was afraid to read this book as a child--the cover looks really scary, and I was a nightmare-prone child who avoided scary books like the plague. Most kids like scary books though, and this one is perfect for your 5th grade fright fan. Louis is a wonderful character, who goes from being a timid outcast, worried about impressing the kids at school, to a brave young man who summons up courage when he needs to act to save the people he loves. The friendship between Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman is funny, and they are both eccentric enough to be interesting, but not so eccentric as to become annoying. Bellairs wrote other books about these characters, and they are worth reading, but are not as good as this book. ( ) In reading the tributes to Bellairs by his fans, I thought it was interesting that several people mentioned that they hated reading, and were not good readers until they discovered one of Bellairs' books, and that experience turned them into avid readers. END
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Summary: One of my childhood favorites
Review: Lots of reviews here recount the plot, so I'll skip that. This book is great fun for younguns who enjoy a good eerie tale. I first read this about 1978 and enjoy revisiting it every so often. Lewis is a great character, smart but also emotional and prone to making bad decisions. He's also fat, bookish and not good at sports although he keeps trying and trying. His Uncle Jonathan is a great parental figure, loving, nonjudgemental but also seemingly baffled sometimes by dealing with his nephew, someone who's a lot like him. The plot is full of chills and thrills. It does amble somewhat and there are lots of scenes that have nothing or little to do with the main storyline, but this book is also a primer for Bellair's world of wizards and supernatural chills. The book has a good message about courage that lots of kids like Lewis would benefit from hearing. It helped me as a bookish kid who was no good at sports (although I wasn't fat...that waited until I was an adult!). The writing is brisk and Bellairs is a master of atmosphere. He creates a great feel for the old house and the town of New Zebedee. As an adult, I enjoy this book immensely, and highly recommend it to kids. Parents whose kids enjoy a good chill may enjoy sharing it with them. Kids who enjoy Harry Potter are likely to enjoy this as well. Bellairs' books are basically gothic horror for the younger set, and this was his first in that genre and his best. P.S. Hollywood, if you're reading...these books would make great movies, or maybe a TV series!
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Summary: This takes me back
Review: This was my first Lewis book, and i devoured it... it scared me to pieces, and I couldn't put it down; i would reread it over and over, and it would never lose the magic that it had when i first opened it. Edward gorey's art gives it that extra creepiness. This will always take me back to my childhood.
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Summary: timeless magic
Review: I had completely forgotten about this great book, a deceptively light take on magic and being an awkward pre-teen that sounds like Harry Potter but actually achieves more. Recently orphaned Lewis is our hero. Fat and friendless, he is consigned to his weird uncle Jonathan for safekeeping. Unfortunately (okay, luckily for us) Uncle Jonathan is a minor wizard who lives in a strange old house full of spells, books and secrets, and topped by an ominous cupola. For his middling powers, Uncle Jonathan is a strangely affecting character - proven when he "transports" them back through time so Lewis can witness the destruction of the Spanish Armada that Lewis had read about. (Jonathan's imagery is compelling, but isn't above reminding Lewis that it's still just imagery. Even so, the spell maintains the illusion until the Armada's bitter end.) Uncle Jonathan has a darker pre-occupation though - searching the house for a clock built and hidden by the house's previous owner, a wizard like Jonathan who proves to be a wizard at all like Uncle Jonathan. The clock, we are made to believe, is a doomsday clock. What Uncle Jonathan will do with the clock isn't clear, but it's moot given that the clock has eluded Jonathan's powers of detection. If "House" were about nothing more than the search for the missing clock, it would be one of countless forgettable stories about young magicians. Instead, Bellairs wonderful characterization threads doomsday magic with the horror of being a fat, lonely, orphaned boy in a strange world. Lewis befriends another boy, but the pairing leads to disaster in a slick plotline that leads back to the clock. The wonderful prose works the plot like a kind of magic - told through the dialog of orphan and wizard-uncle. "House" has a simple plot - that being lonely is as dire an existence as the brink of doom, but neither are inescapable. Though not as complex a story as "Harry Potter", "House" has a magic that remains undiminished. (And unless Rowling can raise the dead, "House" will also have the drawings of the late-great Edward Gorey to maintain its lead in the dark arts.) I first read this story while in 2nd grade, and kept coming back. Like a great spell, it offers something new on each read.
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Summary: The House with a Clock in its Walls
Review: The book "The House with a Clock in its Walls" is a very exciting, fun, and suspenseful book.It will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. At first when I started reading this book it was only a fun thing to read but by the end I didn't want to put it down. I recommend this book to everyone who likes any kind of mystery.
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Summary: Not John Bellair's best... so far
Review: I'm about 3/4 of the way through this book, and so far I'm feeling a bit disappointed. I remember devouring every John Bellairs book I could get my paws on as a young girl, and with good reason. He is (was) one of the most engaging children's authors around. Now in my twenties, I began craving that long ago high I used to experience every time I picked up a Bellairs. So far, this book has failed to captivate me the way every other of his offerings have. I'm hopeful that things will turn around in the last 1/4 of the book, and I have enough respect for his writing that I'm willing to finish the book to give it the benefit of the doubt. I hope I am not disappointed....
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Summary: a scary and mysterious ride
Review: i got this book for chrismas of 2002. at first i was little skeptical because it wasn't that big (179 pages) chicken sratch compared to what i usually read but when i actually started reading it i was amazed! John was a great writer, if only he had lived long enough to meet J.K. Rowling...the two would've been great buddies!
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