Looking back, I’m pretty sure I first read this book when I was around the same age as my son when he read it. If nothing else, that’s a statement as to the endurance of a true classic. I read through the rest of the books in the Lewis Barnavelt series and moved onto the more YA-oriented Anthony Monday series after that. In a way, I guess you could say that Bellairs was a gateway drug into more mature thriller/horror such as Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
It’s funny to think about it, but I have a pretty significant stack of ‘milestone’ books from my childhood to share with my kids. It will be interesting to see if the things that meant so much to me impact my daughter and son in the same way.
How about you? Are there any works you read as a child that stuck with you?
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