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THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

Name: THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS
Author: John Bellairs
ISBN: 0142402575

by John Bellairs illustrated by Edward Gorey ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 1973

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Gorey's creepy-cozy drawings accurately project the ambience of the big old house in tiny New Zebedee, Michigan, where ten year-old Lewis, newly orphaned by an auto accident, goes to live with his benign and rather seedy warlock uncle Jonathan.

With the help of gray-haired Mrs. Zimmerman, the cookie-baking witch next door, Jonathan amuses his nephew with an eclipse of the moon and other frivolous pastimes—but the uncanny happenings become more sinister when Lewis himself, to impress a friend, manages to summon malignant Mrs. Izard, the house's former occupant, from her tomb. Lewis redeems himself in the end and destroys Mrs. Izard's evil power by finding and breaking a clock which the lady's sorcerer husband, now dead, had programmed to destroy the world.

Bellairs doesn't bother to supply either motivation or blueprints for the Izard's antisocial scheme, but if the cavalier and capricious handling of the occult by characters and author alike precludes any bone-deep shudders, the house lives up to its promise of a few gratifying Halloween shivers.

Pub Date: May 30, 1973

ISBN: 0142402575

Page Count: 196

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1973

Categories:

CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

- BOOK REVIEW
CAUTIONARY TALES FOR CHILDREN
by Hilaire Belloc & illustrated by Edward Gorey

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SPELL OF THE SORCERER'S SKULL
by John Bellairs illustrated by Edward Gorey

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FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS

From the One and Onlys series , Vol. 1

by Doug Cornett ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

Delightful fun for budding mystery fans.

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Only children, rejoice! A cozy mystery just for you! (People with siblings will probably enjoy it too.)

Debut novelist Cornett introduces the One and Onlys, a trio of mystery-solving only kids: Gloria Longshanks “Shanks” Hill, Alexander “Peephole” Calloway, and narrator Paul (alas, no nickname) Marconi. The trio has a knack for finding and solving low-level mysteries, but they come up against a true head-scratcher when the yard of a resident of their small town is covered in rubber ducks overnight. Working ahead of Officer Portnoy, who’s a little on the slow side, can Paul, Shanks, and Peephole solve the mystery? Cornett has a lot of fun with this adventure, dropping additional side mysteries, a subplot about small businesses, big corporations, and economics, and a town’s love of bratwurst into the mix. Most importantly, he plays fair with the clues throughout, allowing astute readers to potentially solve the case ahead of the trio. The tone and mystery are perfect for younger readers who want to test their detective skills but are put off by anything scary or gory. The pacing would serve well for chapter-by-chapter read-alouds. If there are any quibbles, it’s the lack of diversity of the cast, as it defaults white. Diversity exists in small towns, and this one is crying out for more. Hopefully a sequel will introduce additional faces.

Delightful fun for budding mystery fans. (Mystery. 8-12)

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-3003-6

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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EVIL SPY SCHOOL THE GRAPHIC NOVEL

From the Spy School series , Vol. 3

by Stuart Gibbs ; illustrated by Anjan Sarkar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

Will satisfy fans but could be better.

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Young CIA agent-in-training Benjamin Ripley switches sides—or is he just going undercover?—in this graphic version of the third Spy School caper.

Sticking to the plot of the 2015 original, this episode sees the talented math whiz recruited by nefarious organization SPYDER after being (unjustly, he fumes) kicked out of the CIA’s academy. While training in a hidden school for evildoers with other prospective villains, including Ashley Sparks, a gushy former competitive gymnast with a fondness for portmanteau words (sweet + awesome = swawesome), Ben gets wind of a dastardly scheme to make billions on government construction projects. Hot if inept pursuit by both rival espionage agencies takes Ben from a secret underground command center to the top of the Statue of Liberty. But while the action has a rapid flow in the art (Sarkar is good at portraying fights, high-speed chases, and explosions), several characters are drawn with generic features and such a limited range of expressions that even with help from the cast gallery, it’s hard to tell them apart easily. Still, along with coming through in the suspenseful climax—thanks to clever deductions and quick thinking—by the end, Ben has also achieved a long-sought breakthrough with Erica Hale (code name “Ice Queen”), a superbly omnicompetent schoolmate who has his heart as well as his back. The cast largely presents white.

Will satisfy fans but could be better. (Graphic thriller. 8-12)