The House with a Clock in Its Walls facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | John Bellairs |
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| Illustrator | Edward Gorey |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Lewis Barnavelt |
| Genre | Fantasy, mystery fiction |
| Published | 1973 |
| Publisher | Puffin Books |
| Media type | Print book |
| Pages | 179 |
| ISBN | 978-0-451-48128-3 |
| OCLC | 1048899765 |
| Followed by | The Figure in the Shadows |
The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 1973 juvenile mystery fiction novel written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey. It is the first in the series of twelve novels featuring the fictional American boy Lewis Barnavelt (see list of Lewis Barnavelt novels).
Contents
Plot
Lewis Barnavelt, recently an orphan, moves to the town of New Zebedee, Michigan, to live with his mysterious uncle Jonathan Barnavelt. Lewis' uncle turns out to be a mediocre, though well-intentioned, warlock. His next-door neighbor and good friend, Florence Zimmermann, is a far more powerful good witch. Jonathan's house was previously owned by Isaac and Selenna Izard, a sinister couple who had dedicated their lives to black magic, and plotted to bring about the end of the world. Before dying, Isaac constructed the eponymous clock that he hid somewhere inside the walls of the house, where it eternally ticks as it attempts to pull the world into the magical alignment, which would permit him to destroy it.
Lewis befriends a local boy named Tarby Corrigan, who is everything he is not -- popular, athletic, thin -- but the two soon begin to drift apart. Lewis tries to win Tarby back by demonstrating how to raise the dead in the local cemetery on Halloween but in doing so unwittingly releases Selena Izard from her tomb. An escalating series of encounters with the sorceress' ghost builds to a final confrontation in the basement of Jonathan's house, where Lewis must summon up his courage and prevent the couple from finishing their work and bringing about the end time.
Cronin House
The Cronin House in John Bellairs's hometown of Marshall, Michigan was the inspiration for his book. The house received a historical plaque in 1992. With the film adaptation debuting in 2018, Marshall's population embraced the fame with walking tours and other activities related to the book and its film.
Adaptations
- The book was used as the basis for one of the three segments in the 1979 television anthology Once Upon a Midnight Scary, hosted by Vincent Price.
- The book was adapted into the 2018 film of the same name.
See also
In Spanish: The House with a Clock in Its Walls para niños
