The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

This book is the third in Bellairs's Lewis Barnavelt series, though it would be more appropriate to call it a Rose Rita Pottinger book: while Lewis is a presence through the book, he is hardly even a supporting character. But this is welcome; Rose Rita and her friend Mrs. Zimmerman are two of the fleshiest, most complete women characters that Bellairs ever wrote.

Thirteen-year-old Rose Rita, both disappointed that her best friend Lewis is off to Boy Scout camp and disconcerted about the upcoming transition to junior high school, receives an invitation to travel with Mrs. Zimmerman, who has inherited a farm from a slightly batty cousin. The batty cousin was in possession of a magic ring, and in his last letter he asks Mrs. Zimmerman to look after it. But upon their arrival, the farm house is ransacked, the ring goes missing, and soon enough Mrs. Zimmerman disappears, leaving Rose Rita to solve the mystery and find her friend before it's too late.

Interestingly enough, the plot line serves to support Rose Rita instead of the opposite in this book. This is truly Rose Rita's book, and the story of a magical ring (for which Bellairs owes much to Tolkien) props up her emotions and misgivings about growing up. That is the true crux to the book, and the climactic moment comes not so much from magic and evil but from Rose Rita's deepest and most fervent wish to not have to grow up and be a woman. Though Bellairs's interpretation of a thirteen-year-old on the cusp of adolescence can read slightly awkwardly, this book among his many others stands out with an honesty of character and his subtle shift to engage a depth of emotion in his characters that many of his pre-teen readers would understand.

The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring marks a departure for Bellairs, both in his focus on his female characters and the concentration on Rose Rita's confusion over the plot. Whilst this novel lacks some of the magic and history of others by the same author, it still resounds with the authenticity that his readers crave. But this time Bellairs lets his readers even closer to his characters, and the reward is in the reading.