The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Author: John Bellairs
Published: 1973 (First printing), August 3, 2004 (Puffin)
Category: Fantasy/YA

When I first started reading this book, I thought it reminded me of James Howe's Bunnicula series. It has that same feeling. Maybe it has to do with the time period those books were written in.

Poor little Lewis Barnavelt has been newly orphaned due his parents dying in a car crash, so he's going to live with his uncle. Even though Lewis has never met this uncle before, he quickly takes a liking to his friendly uncle, who happens to be a magician, and lives in an old mansion. Little does he know that the mansion was previously owned by an evil wizard and there's a secret ticking sounding within the house's walls. What is the source of that mysterious ticking, and why is it ticking?

Along with Mrs. Zimmerman, their neighbor who also happens to be a witch, the three of them solve the mystery of the ticking and save the world.

I love the writing and the descriptions of this book! Even though it wasn't a "scary" book, I'd get a creepy feeling when I was reading. It's not like a monster was going to attack Lewis - it was just a bunch of ticking! Bellairs also had such vivid descriptions, and it sounds really cheesy to say that I felt like I was in that old house, but I did!

However, if you want a really scary young adult book, you should check out The House on Hackman's Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon, first published in 1986 and most recently in 2001 by Scholastic. I first read it in elementary school and read it again last year, and I still get scared.