From the Bookshelf of What's the Name of That Book???…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought

Lewis goes to live with his Uncle Jonathan, who is very strange indeed. Jonathan is not only a magician, but he's convinced there is a clock hidden within the walls of his house. Lewis rolls with this news, and even uses his uncle's powers to gain a new friend. But the friend doesn't seem convinced, and Lewis decides he needs to do a little magic on his own to impress him. On Halloween night, Lewis raises the former owner of his uncle's house from the dead. And she wants to destroy the world!
I h ...more
I h ...more

I liked this book as a child, but coming back to it now, I couldn't bring myself to relate to the characters. Lewis, the main character, felt underdeveloped, and his actions rarely made sense. It seemed as though every important plot point in the book involved Lewis doing something "for no reason" or randomly and nonsensically. The house in the title was cool, as was its owner, Uncle Jonathan, but the plot of the story felt wooden. There are many children's books that stand the test of time and
...more

I found this delightful haunted house story from the 70s in my local library because it had illustrations by Edward Gorey. The story starts off with a young boy coming to live with his uncle and contains tidbits like "she prefers to be called an enchantrix, but I crack up every time I hear that" and "the book smelled like Old Spice talcum powder. He usually liked books that smelled like that" (paraphrases, sorry, I'm far too lazy to look them up). Really cute and only a little scary.
...more

2.5 stars. I read this because they're making a movie out of it this year. Okay book, but this is one where I can see how the movie might be better.
...more

Jun 22, 2008
Aimee
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children-youngadult,
sciencefiction-fantasy

May 07, 2010
Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides
marked it as decided-not-to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children-ya,
fantasy-fiction

Nov 01, 2010
Sharon
marked it as to-read

Jun 13, 2013
Malina
marked it as to-read

Apr 20, 2014
Melinda Worfolk
added it

Jun 29, 2018
Natalie Pietro
marked it as to-read

Aug 16, 2018
Kate
marked it as to-read

Aug 29, 2018
Liz
marked it as to-read

Jan 06, 2019
Sarah
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childrens,
fiction,
mystery,
magical-realism,
fantasy,
middle-grade,
my-library,
2018,
read-to-oliver-owen-and-abram

Dec 04, 2019
J. Trott
added it

Nov 06, 2022
Beth
added it