In his earliest writings, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies and The Pedant and the Shuffly, Bellairs demonstrated an ability to link the usual and the unusual in a particularly childlike way. In one work he describes a character as emitting "a little cry that usually sounded like air escaping from a leaky valve on an automobile tire"; he describes a voice as "ominous, like soapy water drizzling from an overflowing bathtub." He brings that same ability to his novels for young readers. The added dimension of the supernatural creates an atmosphere of adventure just unreal enough to excite his readers without frightening them.

This combination of the familiar and the adventurous has a strong appeal to a young person's imagination.

Bellairs expresses youthful fears poignantly, vividly recreating the dreams and imaginings that young people undergo as they attempt to adjust their desires to everyday reality. His...