The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder (Johnny Dixon) - Softcover

John Bellairs is beloved as a master of Gothic young adult novels and fantasies. His series about the adventures of Lewis Barnavelt and his uncle Jonathan, which includes The House with a Clock in Its Walls, is a classic. He also wrote a series of novels featuring the character Johnny Dixon. Among the titles in that series are The Curse of the Blue Figurine; The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt; and The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull. His stand-alone novel The Face in the Frost is also regarded as a fantasy classic, and among his earlier works are St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies and The Pedant and the Shuffly.

Bellairs was a prolific writer, publishing more than a dozen novels before his untimely death in 1991.
 Brad Strickland has written and cowritten forty-one novels, many of them for younger readers. He is the author of the fantasy trilogy Moon Dreams, Nul’s Quest, and Wizard’s Mole, and the creator of the popular horror novel Shadowshow. With his wife, Barbara, he has written for the Star Trek Young Adult book series, for Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? book series, and for Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (Pocket Books). Both solo and with Thomas E. Fuller, he has written several books about Wishbone, public TV’s literature-loving dog. When he's not writing, he teaches English at Gainesville College in Gainesville, Georgia. He and Barbara have two children, Amy and Jonathan, and a daughter-in-law, Rebecca. They live and work in Oakwood, Georgia.

Grade 5-8. If imitation is indeed the finest form of flattery, John Bellairs would be very pleased with Strickland's newest novel of evildoings in Duston Heights, MA, in the mid-1950s. Fans will warmly greet again their old friends Johnny Dixon, Fergie, and Professor Childermass. Bored, Fergie looks for the last book in the town library (Dewey decimal number 999.99T). The Book of True Wishes, by evil spellbinder Jarmyn Thanatos, puts the boy under a spell that threatens not only his own life but also the lives of his friends and family. The mad sorcerer, in an attempt to achieve earthly immortality, has been kidnapping boys and taking possession of their bodies for the past 300 years. Fergie is his next victim. Can his friends save him? Replete with eerie details?swarming locust mummies, locked coffins, pealing bells, and ghosts?the tension escalates quickly in this sure-to-please page-turner for readers who might have graduated from Goosebumps yet are not quite ready for Stephen King. Perhaps what is eeriest of all is Strickland's perfect imitation of Bellairs. Could it be reincarnation or body snatching? Sounds like a potential Strickland/Bellairs novel.?Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
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