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8th out of 33 books
—
31 voters
The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (Lewis Barnavelt #3)
Rose Rita Pottinger is dreading summer. With her best friend, Lewis Barnavelt, away at Boy Scout camp, vacation threatens to be altogether boring. But when Mrs. Zimmermann, Lewis's next door neighbor and a genuine witch, receives a strange deathbed letter from an eccentric uncle, unexpected things start to happen.
Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmermann set off on a trip to discover...more
Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmermann set off on a trip to discover...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
August 3rd 2004
by Puffin
(first published 1976)
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if there's one typical thing that the resolutely atypical magical series by John Bellairs subscribes to, it is the cliché that outsiders band together. but of course it is more than a cliché, it is a reality, and it is something that helps the less-than-perfect kids of the world survive childhood with at least some of their self-esteem intact. the kids in this series are outsiders, but not the beautiful kind - they are the fat kids, the awkwardly aggressive tomboys, and the adults who are those...more
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I've read this so many times; it is probably my favorite children's book. I love the characters and the memories the book evokes in me. My friend Krissi and I would check this book out from the library and read the whole thing aloud, taking turns lying in a cedar chest! Mrs. Zimmerman is great, but it's the courage of the girl that amazes me. She reminded me of myself--in terms of her straight hair and glasses, but she had much more courage than I ever did or probably ever will.
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A girl has a final childhood adventure amidst the winds of change.
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Rose Rita is looking at her world and not liking what she sees. Her friend Lewis is going off to camp without her, her friend Mrs. Zimmerman has lost most of her magical powers and her mother is starting use terms like “growing up” and people “changing” as they get older. Especially when it comes to boys and girls. The problem with Rose Rita is that she is really more of a Tom Boy and doesn't really do a lot of the things t...more
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Rose Rita is looking at her world and not liking what she sees. Her friend Lewis is going off to camp without her, her friend Mrs. Zimmerman has lost most of her magical powers and her mother is starting use terms like “growing up” and people “changing” as they get older. Especially when it comes to boys and girls. The problem with Rose Rita is that she is really more of a Tom Boy and doesn't really do a lot of the things t...more
This is the second Bellairs book I have read, and so far it is my favorite. Immediately at the start we are involved in a road trip, at the end of which comes a mystery in an old farm house. The familiar fears and concerns of 12-year-olds do not strike one as childish in this case, for we are dealing with spells, witches, and evil storekeepers, and none of us can ever claim mastery over those things. We follow the clever deductions of a spunky Rose Rita, who temporarily loses the guidance of her...more
I checked the three books in this series out from the library when I was a kid over and over again, so was tickled when I found The Letter, The Witch, And The Ring at a yard sale a while back. This is the third book in author John Bellairs trilogy that features Rose Rita and her friend Lewis. In this book, Lewis goes off to camp for the summer, leaving Rose Rita looking forward to a very boring summer until their friend and local witch, Mrs. Zimmerman, receives a mysterious letter from her recen...more
Erik Adams' Halloween write-up of John Bellairs' "The House With The Clock In Its Walls" (http://avc.lu/XqSk8A) reminded me that it's been decades since I revisited Bellairs' work. And as soon as I looked for them on a library shelf, I realized there were a dozen or more of them I never read, that were mostly written in the ’90s. So I'm going back and revisiting them. "The Letter, The Witch, And The Ring" stands up really well as a spooky story that lets the kid protagonist do all the dangerous...more
i cozied up with a john bellairs mystery many a night as a youngster and even just last year!
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, and...more
This is a rare Bellairs with a female protagonist. Lewis is away at summer camp, and his best friend Rose Rita goes to Michigan with Mrs Zimmerman to dispose of some property Mrs Z's cousin Oley left her. Gertie is an angry, unhappy old woman who still carries a grudge against Mrs Z from a fight over a boy when they were girls. She steals Oley's magic ring to use for revenge and Rose Rita is left on her own to save both herself and her friend. Bellairs deals sensitively with issues of gender dis...more
Rose Rita faces a summer alone after Lewis goes to Boy Scout camp. It gets worse when her mother suggests they have a "little talk" about boys and girls soon, and Rose Rita thinks about how she's 13 now and about to enter Junior High where there's even less room for a tomboy like her as well as dances and dating.
Thankfully Mrs. Zimmerman invites her along on a road trip to see the sights of Upper Michigan and take care of some inherited property. But there's something amiss. When they arrive a r...more
Thankfully Mrs. Zimmerman invites her along on a road trip to see the sights of Upper Michigan and take care of some inherited property. But there's something amiss. When they arrive a r...more
Aug 10, 2011
Lia
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
supernatural-fiction
I love Bellairs' scary mysteries. I loved them as a child, too. They were just scary enough so I would make a running leap for the bed in the darkened room, but not scary enough to keep me awake. I also feel like he takes his young characters seriously. That even when the young mind is passionately irrational, it is still real.
I read the copy with Edward Gorey's perfect illustrations. Really, he's the perfect choice.
I read the copy with Edward Gorey's perfect illustrations. Really, he's the perfect choice.
John Bellairs was the pre-cursor to J.K. Rowling. As a child, I would get absolutely lost in the spooky wizard filled worlds of Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger. As an adult, I am the proud owner of a collection of John Bellairs books, with the original artwork by none other than Edward Gorey. I love to re-read these books when I need a brain break from the noise and haste that is adult life.
This has a very different feel than all other Bellairs books I've read. I didn't mind it. Rose Rita and I could have been siblings. This book center's more on her journey towards adulthood than on the scary story, 'though there is plenty of classic Bellairs spookiness. Just less than, say, The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
This took a while to get through, though I really liked it at first. I wish more John Bellairs of this series was on audio because the forced pace makes it easier to get through the lengthy scenes that extend with awkward tension and all the grown-ups making things worse and irritating. It was nice to see Mrs. Zimmerman and Rose Rita on their own.
This was the final book in the best of John Bellairs compilation and I will admit that I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two only because the focus what not on the usual main character. It won't deter me from reading other books by this author though!
I think that Mrs. Zimmerman was probably my favorite character in the entire Lewis Barnavelt "arc" of John Bellairs' stories. Stories with her as a central focus tend to be kooky and fun, and definitely entertaining.
This is one of those great books that I hope I remember when I have kids. It will teach my sons that girls can be strong and teach my daughters that they don't have to play by the rules set down for then by society.
I read this book for a reading group book a few months ago, and I would be happy to read this again. I loved this book because it has an un-expected thief, and an un-expected ending, with many twists.
they are getting a bit formulaic, but really, these books are meant for 3rd and 4th graders, not YA. This one was good because it was about the girl character and her coming to terms (she's 13) with the type of girl she is and the support she gets from her friends that it's OK to be just the way she is.
Yet another gem. Suspenseful and scary - and somehow real. This is the third in this series (and I generally do not read series) and I think any kid from 10 years on would love these.
A fave from my elementary years in the late 1970s. I just found it again at a library book sale and will read it again sometime.
The amazingly rich atmosphere of the first half of the book actually spooked me. Never read this one as a kid -- it would have scared me to death, I am sure.
Fabulous-- I just love the characters of Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmermann. Truly scary-- especially the death spell!
I read his books when I was a kid and recently re-read them with Audrey. She loves the "spooky" ghost stories.
I read this when I was a kid and it scared the wits out of me. Now I'm just curious because I remember almost nothing...
I found this at a used book store and loved it - 1970's Harry Potter for young readers.
Das R
Yes, once again, thanks to Kauggyie I read this one.
Feb 04, 2009
Amanda Langdon
added it
Great Suspense/Thriller for Young Readers
One of my childhood favorites.
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John Bellairs
(1938–1991) was an American novelist working primarily in the Gothic genre. He is best-known for the children's classic The House with a Clock in its Walls 1973) and for the pathbreaking fantasy novel The Face in the Frost (1969). Bellairs held a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University and a master's in English from the University of Chicago. He combined writing and teaching fr...more
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