The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
Written by John Bellairs
Narrated by George Guidall
4/5
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About this audiobook
John Bellairs
John Bellairs is beloved as a master of Gothic young adult novels and fantasies. His series about the adventures of Lewis Barnavelt and his uncle Jonathan, which includes The House with a Clock in Its Walls, is a classic. He also wrote a series of novels featuring the character Johnny Dixon. Among the titles in that series are The Curse of the Blue Figurine; The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt; and The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull. His stand-alone novel The Face in the Frost is also regarded as a fantasy classic, and among his earlier works are St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies and The Pedant and the Shuffly. Bellairs was a prolific writer, publishing more than a dozen novels before his untimely death in 1991.
Related to The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
Titles in the series (12)
The Ghost in the Mirror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House With a Clock in Its Walls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Figure in the Shadows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Specter From the Magicians Museum Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tower at the End of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doom of the Haunted Opera Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The House Where Nobody Lived Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
132 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I feel for Rosa Rita! But she comes out of it ok, sort of. The last book in this series written entirely by Bellairs, so I get to stop here.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5And then there was The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring which focused almost entirely on Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman's adventures over the summer while Lewis was at Boy Scout Camp. (So why then is this often referred to as The Lewis Barnavelt Series?) Rose Rita is a full-fledged tomboy and is dissatisfied with being a girl. She wants a chance to prove herself and she gets the perfect opportunity when Mrs. Zimmerman becomes afflicted by dark magic and then mysteriously vanishes. [A/N: Richard Egielski is the illustrator of this volume and has a much different style.] If you haven't picked up on this by now it seems as if Bellairs sticks to the same narrative with only slight variations which is the main reason why this series got so stale by the second book. I don't have a lot of hope for the fourth but maybe with a different author at the helm (books up until 2008 and they began in the early 70s) there will be an uptick in excitement and narrative diversity. 3/10
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not only do I remember this one fairly well, I really like it - good creepy parts and a good, interesting bad guy, and Rose Rita is wonderful in it. And Mrs. Zimmerman, of course, but Mrs. Zimmerman is always wonderful.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Letter The Witch and the Ring is an early John Bellairs book, and the first adventure starring Mrs. Zimmerman and Rose Rita.Rose Rita is disappointed that she won't be able to be with her friend Lewis this summer. However, her neighbor (and local witch) Mrs. Zimmerman asks Rose Rita to join her in the Upper Peninsula where she will be staying a a farm house her cousin left her before he died. There is also a mysterious magical ring involved-but when Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman arrive at the farm house, the ring is gone! Could other forces be at work? And are they deeper and darker than either of our heroines could imagine?This was a good book, although it did read like an early Bellairs effort and the characters weren't as fine tuned as I remember them being in other books. I also sorely missed the Edward Gorey illustrations. The story was good, although it didn't have me as scared out of my wits as some of his others.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring is listed as being part of the Lewis Barnaveldt series, but Lewis plays an extremely minor part in the book, and doesn't affect the plot except that his absence drives the his best friend (and heroine of the story) Rose Rita to travel with the elderly Mrs. Zimmerman to her late cousin's farm.The plot of the book is kicked off by a letter Mrs. Zimmerman receives from her late cousin bequeathing her his farm in upstate Michigan. The letter also mentions a magic ring that her cousin says he found on the property. Thirteen year old Rose Rita, feeling abandoned as her best friend Lewis Barnaveldt has decided to go to scout camp for the summer, decides to accompany Mrs. Zimmerman to settle the affairs related to the farm.One of the elements of Bellairs' stories that seem to date them is the easy acceptance of these sorts of friendships between older adults and children. The friendship between Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass in the Johnny Dixon novels and the close friendship between Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman in the Barnaveldt novels are associations I doubt parents would condone in more recent years. In Mrs. Zimmerman's case, it appears Rose Rita's parents don't even like her (unlike Johnny Dixon's grandparents, who are friends with Professor Childermass), but they let her spend the night at Mrs. Zimmerman's house and go away with her on long trips. Nowadays, such a close relationship between an older woman and an unrelated teenage girl would raise more than a few eyebrows, and probably be prohibited by the child's parents. I'm not sure all of Mrs. Zimmerman's influence on Rose Rita is good, but she means well, and if it were prohibited, Rose Rita would clearly suffer, so maybe we have become too sensitive about this sort of thing.Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman travel to northern Michigan, find an old nemesis of Mrs. Zimmerman's, find the farm in disarray, and the allegedly magical ring missing. The two then spend a couple weeks in the area, surrounded by odd events and getting themselves into troubles of various sorts, until Mrs. Zimmerman vanishes one night.On her own now, Rose Rita springs into action, jumps to a couple conclusions, makes a new friend, stretches the truth a bit, and nearly gets herself killed trying to locate and rescue Mrs. Zimmerman. In the end, the villain does herself in, and all turns out well.In some ways, the mystery, while fun, is merely a backdrop for the story of tomboyish Rose Rita coming to grips with becoming a teenage girl. She is conflicted, not wanting to give up the things she enjoys (and that make her a tomboy), but she also has started to think about what it would be like to be more "girlish" and whether she wants to do that.In the end, an enjoyable gothic mystery story, combined with engaging and well-written characters made this an enjoyable read, and a book I would certainly recommend to any young reader.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I remember my third grade teacher reading this book to us in class. I have a terrible memory, so when something does stick in my head, I have to wonder why. So I read the book. Nothing spectacular about it. Just happy memories