34. The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs (Children’s Horror) 179 p.

This is John Bellairs’s most well-known book, and for some reason, it’s the one I remembered best. (Probably because a minor plot point, the Hand of Glory—a candle growing out of the back of a severed hand—made a deep impression on me when I first read it.)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls is actually surprisingly creepy. It’s the first of three books featuring Lewis Barnavelt, a shy 10-year-old whose parents have recently died in a car accident. When the book opens, Lewis is on a bus, on his way to New Zebedee, Michigan, where he will live with his Uncle Jonathan, who he’s never met:

Of course, Lewis had heard a few things about Uncle Jonathan, like that he smoked and drank and played poker. These were not such bad things in a Catholic family, but Lewis had two maiden aunts who were Baptists, and they had warned him about Jonathan. He hoped that the warnings would turn out to be unnecessary.

And at first, they do seem to be unnecessary. Jonathan is a very friendly man, but he soon turns out to have some strange habits. Lewis finds out that his uncle is a warlock, and their next-door neighbour and Jonathan’s best friend, Florence Zimmerman, is a witch. This turns out to be rather a good thing—the real problem is the ominous ticking which seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

I should mention that I’m quite pleased by this edition (pictured above), because even though it doesn’t have the Gorey cover, it does have his original illustrations inside. Like the one below:

Without being particularly preachy, this book gives a great object lesson on why you should never try to bribe or impress someone to keep their friendship. Especially by using witchcraft and necromancy.

If you want to try out a John Bellairs book, or know a child who might, The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a great place to start. It’s an excellent, scary story, it’s the first in a series, and it’s actually the first children’s book Bellairs wrote.

Pages read: 9,837

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, John Bellairs, Lewis Barnavelt