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philenaSo in the past few days I have moved from my more hefty reading material towards the relics from my childhood. I have now devoured all of the John Bellairs books that I own, and even gone out and bought two more. They are sort of horror/mystery stories for elementary/middle school kids (think grade 3-6), and they are simply brilliant. They feature curmudgeonly old professors, klutzy librarians with lady-like manners and enormous vocabularies of curse-words, big hairy red-headed magicians, and usually a 10-14-year old protagonist who is a good friend to one of the afore-mentioned characters. The old people are much, much more fun than the protagonists, and although I'm not seeing much more than I did when I read them the first time, they are so delightful that I'm enjoying them thoroughly. I have, however, noticed one moment in The Dark Secret of Weatherend that completely mystified me the first time I read it. To bring you up to date, you must understand that Miss Eells (the clutzy librarian, aged 68) and Anthony (14 year-old kid) are driving up to Duluth in the middle of a snowstorm to stop an evil magician from destroying the planet with bad weather. The magician sent an emissary in the form of Miss Eells's brother, Emerson, to get Miss Eells and Anthony out of the way, which involved driving them into the snowstorm and dumping them on the road in the middle of nowhere, but fortunately a friendly tow-truck driver finds them. Read the following:
For about half a minute, Mr. Johnson [the tow-truck driver] said nothing. He rubbed his china nd stared at the two of them. Then his eyes narrowed, and his mouth drew into a hard thin line. "That guy that picked you up at my garage--was he your brother?" he asked.
Miss Eells hesitated a second. Then, with an odd half-smile on her face, she said, "yes, he was. Why?"
Mr Johnson looked indignant. "Well, if that's the case, he's a real louse!"
Isn't it clear from the odd, half-smile? Miss Eells is flirting! Mr. Johnson wanted to make sure that the fellow who picked her up in the middle of the storm wasn't a husband or anything, and she confirms that he isn't--that she's available! Hehehehehee! Miss Eells is one of my favorite characters.
There are three sets of characters in these books (four if you count The Face in the Frost, which is an excellent, excellent short fantasy novel about wizards, but it's really written for adults, not kids): Miss Eells and Anthony Monday; Professor Roderick Random Childermass (he and all of his brothers are named from characters from Tobias Smollett novels) and Johnny Dixon; and Lewis Barnavelt, his Uncle Jonathan and neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman, and his best friend Rose Rita. When I was little I didn't like the Lewis novels because, of all reasons, I didn't like that Lewis was fat. But I think the best book of the long, impression collection, is the one my mother always told me was the best: The House with the Clock on its Walls. It has the charm of the first Harry Potter book (if I may debase myself by committing such a pop comparison): we first meet Uncle Jonathon, who is a wizard, and Mrs. Zimmerman, who is a witch, and learn all about Uncle Jonathon's wonderful house with all the little characteristics that let us know that it belongs to a wizard: stained-glass widows that change images, a mirror on the top of a coat-rack that sometimes shows your face, but is just as likely to show images from history, and Christmas parties where we can participate in illusory historical events where, if Uncle Jonathon is feeling silly, he'll let Napoleon win Waterloo. I went out today to buy more Lewis novels, but I could only find two, which weren't as good. Maybe I should look up John Bellairs and see if I'm missing any from my collection, but the problem is that he died with some unfinished books, which were finished by a fellow named Brad Strickland, and those aren't nearly as good, and I don't want to buy any of them by mistake. But I must have a full collection of the genuine article!
For about half a minute, Mr. Johnson [the tow-truck driver] said nothing. He rubbed his china nd stared at the two of them. Then his eyes narrowed, and his mouth drew into a hard thin line. "That guy that picked you up at my garage--was he your brother?" he asked.
Miss Eells hesitated a second. Then, with an odd half-smile on her face, she said, "yes, he was. Why?"
Mr Johnson looked indignant. "Well, if that's the case, he's a real louse!"
Isn't it clear from the odd, half-smile? Miss Eells is flirting! Mr. Johnson wanted to make sure that the fellow who picked her up in the middle of the storm wasn't a husband or anything, and she confirms that he isn't--that she's available! Hehehehehee! Miss Eells is one of my favorite characters.
There are three sets of characters in these books (four if you count The Face in the Frost, which is an excellent, excellent short fantasy novel about wizards, but it's really written for adults, not kids): Miss Eells and Anthony Monday; Professor Roderick Random Childermass (he and all of his brothers are named from characters from Tobias Smollett novels) and Johnny Dixon; and Lewis Barnavelt, his Uncle Jonathan and neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman, and his best friend Rose Rita. When I was little I didn't like the Lewis novels because, of all reasons, I didn't like that Lewis was fat. But I think the best book of the long, impression collection, is the one my mother always told me was the best: The House with the Clock on its Walls. It has the charm of the first Harry Potter book (if I may debase myself by committing such a pop comparison): we first meet Uncle Jonathon, who is a wizard, and Mrs. Zimmerman, who is a witch, and learn all about Uncle Jonathon's wonderful house with all the little characteristics that let us know that it belongs to a wizard: stained-glass widows that change images, a mirror on the top of a coat-rack that sometimes shows your face, but is just as likely to show images from history, and Christmas parties where we can participate in illusory historical events where, if Uncle Jonathon is feeling silly, he'll let Napoleon win Waterloo. I went out today to buy more Lewis novels, but I could only find two, which weren't as good. Maybe I should look up John Bellairs and see if I'm missing any from my collection, but the problem is that he died with some unfinished books, which were finished by a fellow named Brad Strickland, and those aren't nearly as good, and I don't want to buy any of them by mistake. But I must have a full collection of the genuine article!
