Now this is what I’m talking about! With Strickland finishing writing the Lewis Barnavelt series that John Bellairs started, we’re back to wonderfully written and carefully crafted gothic horror for the children’s audience (and those of us who refuse to grow up). Lewis and Rose Rita are once again faced with a magical opponent when they find a cursed opera during a school project, leading to an adventure that rivals the creativity, suspense, and comedy of the book that started the series off. Tracing back into New Zebadee’s history, the pair are faced by another of the town’s dark wizards who was defeated by the magical consortium many years ago. While some of the adventure is structured exactly the same as the first novel (adults absent, Lewis conquering his fear, spooky graveyards, magical spells gone awry, etc), Strickland introduces new imagery and spellwork throughout to make this story stand out on its own and keep us on the edge of our seats as the situation grows dire for Lewis and Rose Rita. For a pair of relatively hapless kids, these two are slowly hitting their stride as they problem solve around the villain’s moves with more independence than previously, and it is their brilliant idea to heckle the magician out of performing his perfected cursed opera! Absolutely ridiculous as a finisher, but this kind of creative thinking that does the trick is a perfect way to end the story with a moment of laughter. ( )

When Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger explore an abandoned theater, they discover an unpublished opera score. Ignoring a strange omen, they show it to their music teacher, who heralds The Day of Doom as a masterpiece.

Brad Strickland finished this based on an outline left by John Bellairs after his death. It features a lot of classic Bellairs' charm and my personal favorite of Edward Gorey's artwork for the series - the back cover features Lewis' nightmare where headless Opera patrons surround him and Rose Rita. Strickland does a remarkable job here.

Doing research for a local history project brings Lewis and Rose Rita to the abandoned New Zebedee Opera House located above the Feed & Seed downtown. There, Lewis discovers some sheet music making up a lost opera, "The Day of Doom", hidden inside a piano and runs off with it. This is despite a ghost warning him of he who would be "King of the Dead". Rose Rita is surprisingly skeptical about the ghost, even when Lewis challenges her on the weird shit they've been through together and apart over the last couple of years.

It tuns out that the pages Lewis rescued were hidden from the sinister Henry Vanderhelm to prevent the opera from being performed. It makes up a grand spell that could enslave the dead and doom the living. Unfortunately, New Zebedee has been cut off from the outside world and the adults have already been taken in by the spell of the Opera. Without Uncle Jonathan or Mrs. Zimmerman and with the other New Zebedee magicians vanished, what can two plucky kids do?

As I said, Strickland does a good job here. He expands a little on the world of New Zebedee and attempts to explain why so much weird goings-on focus on their small Michigan town. I liked the inclusion of more witches and magicians as well. This was spooky and dosed with a little satire of high-brow culture.

Lewis & Rose Rita

Next: 'The Specter from the Magician's Museum'

Previous: 'The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder' ( )

When Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman leave town for an old friend's funeral, Lewis and Rose Rita think they'll have a quiet couple of weeks researching a school project on the local defunct opera house. They're wrong, of course, because the opera house is haunted, of course.
We love this series for its great characters and its spooky-but-not-too-scary atmosphere. Perfect for kiddos who like supernatural sorts of stories but don't actually like to be scared. ( )

When Uncle Jonathan and neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman are called to Florida because of a friend's death, Lewis is left in the care of old Mrs. Holtz. She only knows that Uncle Jonathan is interested in magic, not that he's a powerful magician, that Mrs. Zimmerman is an actual witch, or that their Michigan town is a hotbed of supernatural activity. So no one warns Lewis and his best friend Rose Rita not to go into the abandoned old opera house for their school project. Lewis discovers the music to an operatic masterpiece there, and news of the find brings a mysterious stranger to town who insists on staging the production at all costs, even shutting down the school. With nearly every adult suddenly wanting to sing opera, no one but Lewis and Rose Rita notice that their town has been cut off from the outside world by a thick fog that keeps them from leaving and anyone from getting in.

I really like Bellairs' books. They have just the right amount of scary for kids but plenty of plot for adults. It might be hard to see from the cover, but it depicts a scene of Lewis, riding his bike at night through the thick fog while ghosts attack him, biting and trying to knock him over. That would scare a kid. ( )