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The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John BellairsPuffin Books, 2004 (originally The Dial Press, 1976)

This is the third of the Lewis Barnavelt mysteries, after The House with a Clock in Its Walls and The Figure in the Shadows, though the star of this one is really Lewis’s friend Rose Rita Pottinger. It’s summertime and Lewis is off to boy scout camp, and Rose Rita wishes she could go along too. As consolation, though, Rose Rita gets to go with Mrs. Zimmermann, the friendly witch next door, to Mrs. Z’s late cousin’s farm way up in the northern part of Michigan. The cousin, before he died, sent Mrs. Z. a letter saying he’d found a magic ring, but Mrs. Zimmermann dismisses it as being a bit of craziness from her not-quite-right-in-the-head relative. Rose Rita, on the other hand, isn’t so sure, and of course, Rose Rita is right, and of course, adventures ensue.

This book doesn’t have quite as many pleasing descriptive passages as The House with a Clock in Its Walls, but it has some, about the pine forests of northern Michigan, about “old white houses on shady back streets, houses with screened porches and green shutters and sagging trellises with morning glories or hollyhocks on them” (p 45). This book was more compelling than the last one, for sure: I like that it’s a summer vacation book, and I like that we get lots of time with Mrs. Zimmermann. (At one point we learn: “She loved to browse in junk shops. She could spend hours sifting through all sorts of trash, and sometimes she had to be dragged away by force” (p 45). This sounds a bit like me in junk shops, though for me it’s mostly boxes of old photos or old postcards with which I could spend hours—and books, of course.) And I like how Rose Rita gets more fully developed as a character, and how brave she is. And now, I think, I’m ready to read something that isn’t a kid’s book, though I’m not sure what exactly I’ll choose!

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3 responses to “The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John BellairsPuffin Books, 2004 (originally The Dial Press, 1976)”

  1. Danya Avatar
    Danya

    Aha, maybe I can suggest something …? A book that I have read recently and enjoyed in a rare way is Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet (Penguin 1991). I’ve never experienced Australia first-hand, but the narrator of this book seems to me to have an authentic voice. Nothing jars.

    The story follows the lives of two quite different 20th century families who are in troubled circumstances and end up splitting and sharing a large house as best they can – each family occupying each half. In general it’s not a happy tale, but there are moments of dark humour that made me laugh out loud, and many skilfull and evocative images.

    Winton has no pretensions, though he writes so well you’d think he would allow himself a few.

    I enjoyed the novel in the same way I enjoyed Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex – loving every minute of the first reading, and biding my time until I can enjoy the next reading, and the next.

    Here are some extracts to give you an idea:

    ‘Will you look at us by the river! The whole restless mob of us on spread blankets in the dreamy briny sunshine skylarking and chiaking about for one day, one clear, clean, sweet day in a good world in the midst of our living’ (the first sentences of the book; p 1).

    ‘The woman and the daughter do not speak. The crippled man does not stir. The breeze comes in the window and stops the scene from turning into a painting’ (p 16).

    ‘… his teeth were like burnt mallee stumps. When he breathed on you, there was no telling how you’d behave’ (p 139).

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  2. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    Danya, thanks, that does sound like a satisfying read. I love the phrase “dreamy briny sunshine,” and a comparison to Middlesex in terms of enjoyment seems promising. And it looks like my local library has a copy. Hold placed, hoorah.

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  3. Danya Avatar
    Danya

    Great, hope you enjoy it!

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