The House With a Clock in Its Walls

By John Bellairs

Hi! This is a great book! It’s about a boy named Lewis. His parents died in an automobile accident, so he’s sent to stay with his Uncle Jonathan. I think it’s really cool how Lewis’ Uncle Jonathan parents Lewis. He lets him stay up as late as he wants and he’s not a tough uncle at all! Uncle Jonathan’s neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, is equally as kind. She invites Lewis over to her house all the time and they have cookies and hot chocolate. After Lewis moved in with Uncle Jonathan, he made a friend named Tarby. Tarby is a very helpful friend. He teaches Lewis how to play baseball.

But Lewis’ uncle is magic. His uncle does some tricks to show off to Tarby. Lewis and Tarby go on a very unexpected journey. But on this journey, Lewis might just lose his best friend forever. And it might include Lewis raising someone from the dead. The person he supposedly has raised is the wife of someone who planted a magical clock somewhere in Lewis’ house! It is feared that the magical clock will blow the house up when somebody puts the right key into it.

Selenna, the person Lewis raised from the dead, has the key. And she’s evil. She’s more powerful than Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmermann because she’s a witch, too. And she knows where the clock is!

What will Lewis, Uncle Jonathan, and Mrs. Zimmermann do? Will Selenna get into their house and find the clock or will they be able to prevent it from happening? Will friendships last? As I always say, read the book to find out!

A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:

“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 4