Lewis Barnavelt (series)

Lewis Barnavelt is a fictional American boy featured in a series of twelve children's gothic horror novels. written by John Bellairs or his successor Brad Strickland. In each book, Lewis and his group of friends face and overcome evil forces usually bent on ending the world. Alternatively, Lewis Barnavelt is the book series ("Chubby Lewis Barnavelt" in ISFDB).

In 1948, Lewis' parents are killed in a sudden car accident, and Lewis moves to the fictional town of New Zebedee, Michigan, to live at 100 High Street with his uncle, Jonathan Barnavelt. Lewis soon learns that his uncle is actually a hedge wizard and neighbor Florence Zimmermann is a kindly but very powerful witch. He also finds out that the house in which his uncle is now living once belonged to a warlock named Isaac Izard and his wife, an evil witch called Selenna. When Lewis unwittingly resurrects Selenna in an attempt to impress his friend Tarby—an act that drives the other boy away—he finds a clock Isaac hid within the wall of the house. He destroys the clock, permanently sending the evil witch back to the grave. After Lewis makes friends with Rose Rita Pottinger, his adventures continue over the next several years.

At the start of the series, Lewis is a shy and overweight ten-year-old boy who enjoys reading. At one point in the series, Rose Rita describes him as a worrywart, albeit one who displays true courage in genuinely dangerous situations. Despite often being targeted by bullies, Lewis stands up for himself at times, at first with the aid of outside forces such as Rose Rita or an amulet, and then later on his own. Lewis accidentally causes supernatural problems, but tends to be the one who helps set things right.

In the book The House With a Clock in Its Walls readers learn that when Lewis grows up, he becomes an astronomer working at Mount Palomar who will discover that a magic egg he received that first Christmas with his uncle is capable of showing him scenes on other planets.

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