The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull by John Bellairs

The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull Reviews

• 
  ✦BookishlyRichie✦

  5 STARS!!
  
  
  
  Re-read for #JohnBellairsMonth!!
  
  This is one of my favorites from John's books, scary, fantastical, and thrilling as hell. If you still haven't picked up a John Bellairs book, do-it-now!!! His books are scary, thrilling, full of mystery, and will have you not wanting to put them down. :)
• 
  Calista

  This was my favorite of the Johnny Dixon Series so far. I love John Bellairs clear dialogue and quirky characters. I also like the setting of New England. John explores all over the area and I want to visit some of those islands now.
  
  Johnny and Prof. Childermass are staying at a hotel where there is a clock with a room inside it that is made by Childermass's father. A skull falls out of it and Johnny takes it home. Then Prof. Childermass disappears and no one knows what happened.
  
  Johnny gets the help of a catholic priest to help him find the professor and figure out the clues as to what's going on. this is a fun book with gothic dark tones to it. It never is too scary for middle grade and it still gets the job done with a nice conclusion.
  
  Another thing I like about these books for middle grade is they are under 200 pages and you can read them quickly and get a good story. Most middle grade books are now 300 pages and I like those too, but it's nice to have a quick book that does a superb job.
  
  Better than my memory.
• 
  Dave

  I'm severely nostalgic about John Bellairs, discovering Bellairs and wanting to read as many of his books as possible is what turned me from a kid that read occasionally to someone that, to this day, reads daily.
  
  This one gets 5 stars for being one of my childhood favorites and because it still managed to creep me out, even after all these years. Bellairs, in my opinion, is the master of middle-grade macabre, magic, and mystery.
• 
  Becky

  The bar exam is causing my brain to regress to second-grade level. I used to love John Bellairs' scary books when I was a kid, and this one (discovered in a used bookstore for $2) comforted me through the unpleasantness of studying. There are many delights to be had in it, not least of which being the fact that there is a lot of smoking and drinking for a kids' book. I mean, it takes place in the 50s, but still. Love the Edward Gorey illustrations. More religious stuff than I remember from reading it many years ago, but it's kind of lumped in with all the other magic -- it's just good magic. Wonderfully spooky, and everything's explained nicely at the end. Hooray!
• 
  Tricia Harrild

  I like that the characters in John Bellairs' books are a bit nerdy and unpopular. They like to read and eat cookies and relax at home. I like the evil wizards that cast spells of doom and murder and the ghosts they have become. Plus there is artwork by Edward Gorey!!
• 
  D.M. Dutcher

  A book that could no longer be written today, sadly. Johnny Dixon is a friend of the eccentric Professor Childermass. One day when his car breaks down, the two lodge at an inn, and they discover an ornate clock made by one of the Professor's ancestors. It's reputed to be haunted, and on impulse, Johnny takes a tiny skull from it. That triggers a lot of events leading into the abduction of the Professor and an ancient mystery.
  
  Like I said, this book could never be written today. A few reasons are:
  
  1. Catholic priests are trusted enough that parents would let their children go off with them on a long vacation. The abuse scandals make this unthinkable now, even though the majority of priests are innocent.
  
  2. It's not explained away. Without detailed spoilers, many modern books would try to explain away things like a curse through solely material means. This doesn't at all, and is wholly supernatural.
  
  3. It's very dated. I have the old hardcover published in 1984, before the idea of revising children's books to be current was widespread. Whether dialogue, situations, or stereotypes, it feels like a book of its time.
  
  4. It predates the culture wars. In other words, there is something for everyone to dislike. Moderns will not like how much of a role a genial form of Catholicism plays in the book, while Traditionalists will not like the magical form that Catholicism seems to take.
  
  It has some creepy moments for a children's book though. By focusing solely on supernatural horror of the old school type rather than the modern gross-out type, it can have some pretty chilling scenes. It's also good to have a book where children and adults coexist without one set upon the other. A decent read, but more for nostalgia's sake, I would think.
• 
  Qt

  Nicely spooky! I think I'm really getting to like the Johnny Dixon books :-)
  
  I really liked the story and the characters are good, so I went with 4 stars.
• 
  MasterGamgee

  Another fun entry and I like how the author keeps introducing different characters into the dream team and them getting to the bottom of the weird things that happen to Johnny and the Professor.
• 
  Y.

  Got a bit boring to read in the middle, but in general, its a good story. However, the parts where religion was invloved would've been better left out.
• 
  Paula

  Pretty darn spooky for a kid's book!!
• 
  Cynthia Egbert

  Definitely one of my favourite Bellairs offerings. I love the Shakespeare connection to the mystery and the true good vs evil battle with a savvy priest finding the right words to break the evil curse. I am coming to be really connected to these characters, despite the lack of parents that always drives me nuts in books for young people.
• 
  EA Solinas

  John Bellairs books have a certain style that you come to expect -- it's got to have lots of humor, a cheesy title that sounds like a B-movie, dark visions, weird dreams, and a shapeless supernatural evil that can destroy us all. One outstanding example would be "Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull," a genuinely creepy little horror story tinged with clever humor.
  
  Professor Childermass's car breaks down in a small town. While he waits for it to be repaired, he and his young friend Johnny Dixon are shown a dollhouse connected to the professor's grandfather, who died under mysterious circumstances. Johnny finds a tiny skull, which he finds he can't speak to anyone else about -- then he has a vision of a ghostly figure killing the old man. Soon afterwards, Professor Childermass vanishes under mysterious circumstances.
  
  Johnny finally approaches the priest Father Higgins, who promises to help if he can. A petition to Saint Andrew provides sudden answers, in the form of a cryptic rhyme that leads Johnny, Fergie and Father Higgins to a remote island in Maine. But even if they can find the professor, how can they defeat the evil forces that center on the sorcerer's skull?
  
  John Bellairs had a very clever knack for spooking people, scattering creepy elements through "Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull" like a farmer strewing seeds. He has creepy caretakers, Victorian mansions, an enchanted skull and visions of evil skeleton scarecrows -- and while these things just sound a little cheesy, he imbues them with a dark, eerie feeling that seems to cling to even the innocent scenes.
  
  But as usual, he also injects plenty of quirky humor into the story, such as Father Higgins whipping out a guitar and singing a folk song (much to Johnny's bewilderment). It's a good balance to the darker elements of the story. The only problem is that some of the plot twists seem rather contrived, but the story is a fairly decent one despite that flaw.
  
  He also uses this book to introduce the character of Father Higgins, a gruff but kindly priest who serves as the adult authority figure in this book since the professor is, obviously, nowhere to be seen. He's not quite as knowledgeable as the professor, but he serves as a good temporary replacement, and he works well with the complementary buddies Johnny and Fergie.
  
  "Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull" is a genuinely spine-tingling nugget of kiddie horror, and despite no longer being a kid, I still feel a chill at some of the darker moments. Funny, eerie and weird.
  
• 
  Scott

  Travel back to 1952, when an older man could befriend an adolescent boy and there wasn't anything untoward about it. Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass are waylaid in an inn by a snowstorm when they discover a clock with an elaborate and unsettling vignette display. Soon afterwards, the professor magically vanishes and Johnny must enlist the aid of his friend Byron "Fergie" Ferguson and an Irish Catholic priest named Father Higgins to help track him down.
  
  As with his Lewis Barnavelt trilogy, Bellairs seems to have felt the third book was the time to shake things up and remove one of the main characters for most of the story. It's fine, I guess, but I liked the professor much better than Father Higgins and would have preferred to have had him around. I was also a little uncomfortable with the role of religion in this book. Earlier in the story, even Father Higgins appears to be something of a skeptic, but by the end a crucifix (that contains pieces of the "true cross") is burning evil books to ash. Yeah, I know it's all just magic but the fact that it's based on a "real" (as in widely believed today) religion made it feel a bit different. A little like proselytizing, though not as bad as Madeleine L'Engle's books. If I was giving this book to a child, I'd make sure to explain to him or her that it was all equally made up.
  
  All that said, I still think highly of Bellairs' writing. He excels at creating an atmosphere that is spooky even to an adult, and shows a high level of literacy--both linguistic and cultural--for a book aimed at grade schoolers.
• 
  Carrie

  Another Bellairs. This one involves a mysterious clock with a miniature room in it. In the room is a miniature skull, which, if you touch it INFECTS you will EVIL! Wow! What a story! And, they go to Vinalhaven, so, you know, yay Maine.* Another fast, creepy story – this one has a good priest working to save old Professor Childermass from the evil with a piece of the true cross. Lucky that they had some around, no?
  
  I was thinking when I was reading these books that they would make a pretty awesome juvenile tv series. Nice and creepy, not too expensive with the special effects. Someone should start making tv shows of classing young adult series and show them on, like Disney or whatever. Like they used to do Wonderworks when we were younger. It would be great – free ideas, ready for adaptation, keep the young starlets in action, and reduce the amount of crap on television. Famous Hollywood executive who reads the review (as they do), you can have that idea for free.
  
  
  CONFIDENTIAL TO MY HAVERHILL PEEPS: Don't worry about all the evil getting you. I am an expert now, and will have your back should the need arise. If, however, you find a creepy magical object, I would suggest you leave it be. If necessary, chant Latin. E Pluribus Unim should work in a pinch.
  
  *Although, seriously, what is with filling all the places of my life with the Evil? Can’t they put some of that in the Midwest! Stay out of my ‘hood!!
  
  
• 
  Kate

  You know how dollhouses are simultaneously awesome and a little creepy? Just creepy enough to make
  The Dollhouse Murders somehow believable? Bellairs feeds into that creepy in this Johnny Dixon mystery.
  
  Johnny and Professor Childermass are stuck in a snowy town and discover a clock that actually belonged to the Prof's family. Instead of a pendulum it has a perfect little room showing the Prof's uncle on the night of his death. The only anomaly is the weird little skull that seems to zot you when you touch it. Childermass is soon in trouble and only John and Fergie are sensible enough to see it.
  
  Although this book suffers from Fergie's new critical stance and a complete cheat of an ending, it is still downright creepy, and that's what our little darlings are reading Bellairs for, right? And there's a creepy SKULL and creepy GUY and creepy SWITCH TO ANOTHER DIMENSION and all sorts of good creepy. Add Johnny's usual neuroticism and a friendly priest and this one rings all the Bellairs bells. Fourth graders, start reading!
• 
  Alison Diem

  This was a re-read. I originally read this in the fifth grade and I have to admit that it was a lot scarier then.
  
  I was surprised at the level of Catholicism in this book. It's not a problem in any way but I didn't remember that level of religion being a part of these books.
  
  I like father Higgins much more than the Professor, I must admit. There should have been either more Fergie or none at all- the amount that we were given felt very tacked on and pointless.
  
  I'm still debating re-reading any of the other books in this series, as I found it difficult to get through the middle of the book. It seemed slow and dragged somewhat.
  
  
• 
  Joanna

  I feel like I have been reading this book for months. Wait! I have been reading it for months! I started reading it aloud to my son Cameron sometime a bit before Halloween. As we agreed between us many times since then, it is a SPOOKY book. Our attention span for the chapter book read aloud experience has proved a bit short, so we have really ambled through this. We enjoyed it. I was especially pleased by the narrative voice and ear for dialogue- the conversations scanned well read aloud, even if some of the phrasing was a bit dated. Nice descriptive detail throughout, and the New England scenery was fun.
• 
  Stephanie Pennington

  This book is so intriguing... even now as an adult, I find myself thinking about it. It was a different type of read for me as a child, and I believe one of the first books to take my mind to that "dark" side, so to speak... I believe this book is why I became interested in the dark things there are in the world. Granted, the first time I read it, I was a little spooked and weirded out and I think it was quite a while before I picked it up for another go. I loved it as a child, and as a teen and have read it too many times to count. I may just be picking it up again, as I've never had the heart to get rid of it.
• 
  Justin K. Rivers

  One of Bellairs' best. The stakes are high, and so is the amount of scare. Johnny is deprived of his best friend and closest ally, Prof. Childermass, and the personal, invasive nature of the enchanted skull really hits home.
  
  Once again, Bellairs' resolution of the climax is a bit dodgy, relying as usual on some Catholic mumbo jumbo. But the weirdness factor of the strange Childermass clock, plus the tiny skull, and the abduction of the Prof make for a crackin' good story.
• 
  Liaken

  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.
• 
  Amy

  This book scared me a lot as a kid. And while it isn't nearly as frightening reading it as an adult, there are still some disturbing events. A few years ago, I bought several more John Bellairs books at a used bookstore (I wanted the original 80s cover art) and those might be fun to read this summer!
• 
  Mir

  In this installment, it is the curmudgeonly professor Childermass himself who is the victim of a supernatural evil. He disappears and Johnny must find him, with the help of of his best friend Fergie and parish priest Fr Higgins.
• 
  Michael

  I read this in middle school as a part of a series of the same characters. I remember really liking them. They were intense and scary for an innocent 10 year old.I am going to read some of this series again to see if they might be something my 10 year old will like.
• 
  Kris - My Novelesque Life

  3 STARS
  
  
  "When Johnny Dixon takes a tiny skull from a haunted dollhouse, demonic forces are released, capturing Professor Childermass and leading Johnny on a harrowing chase to a deserted island off the coast of Maine." (From Amazon)
  
  A great mystery paranormal children's novel.
• 
  Heather Jackson

  Spellbound
  
  I don't remember this one as well as I do the first two Johnny Dixon books, so it lost a star for its lack of staying power. It was still an enjoyable story, and I'm reminded why I loved these books as much as I did.
• 
  Rachel

  FATHER HIGGINS!!!! I have always had a weird affection for Father Higgins. I'm not Catholic, but I appreciate the chanting and incense and witchy bits.
  
  Also, hats off to Mr. Bellairs for ditching one of his main characters in the third book in the series - a pretty brave move for any author.
• 
  Owen Curtsinger

  I absolutely loved all of the John Bellairs books that I could get my hands on as a kid. Horrifyingly creepy and macabre, made all the more creepy by the Gorey illustrations in previous editions. These are still pretty fun reading them twenty years later.
• 
  Marjanne

  Another fun Bellair's mystery with Johnny Dixion. Nothing too exciting, though I still wish I had discovered this series when I was 8 or 9 years old.
• 
  Teresa

  love all of his!