Editing John Bellairs (section)

=== Critical analysis ===
Critical attention has focused on ''The House With the Clock in Its Walls'' as exemplar of Bellairs' literary merit and style. Critics have argued that Bellairs wrestled with notions of masculinity, femininity, and [[queer]]ness in his works.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Huskey|first=Melynda|title=A Specter is Haunting New Zebedee: Reading John Bellairs as Queer-Kid Gothic|url=https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2357/Huskey%20-%20Specter%20is%20haunting.pdf?sequence=1|access-date=2021-09-05|archive-date=September 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905234857/https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2357/Huskey%20-%20Specter%20is%20haunting.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Skowera|first=Maciej|date=2019-07-24|title=Lewis Barnavelt and the Rainbow over New Zebedee: Queering The House with a Clock in Its Walls|url=https://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/dlk/article/view/29|journal=Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=85–108|doi=10.32798/dlk.29|issn=2657-9510|doi-access=free}}</ref> Professor [[Gary D. Schmidt]] contended that Bellairs' Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger trilogy traced the "emerging acceptance of self" by the two main characters, who struggled with internalized [[Gender role|gender norms]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Gary D. |date=1987-03-01 |title=See how they grow: Character development in children's series books |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01135437 |journal=[[Children's Literature in Education]] |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=34–44 |doi=10.1007/BF01135437 |issn=1573-1693 |s2cid=143265245}}</ref> [[Elizabeth E. Wein|Elizabeth Wein]] analyzes Bellairs's use of the [[haunted house]] motif in ''The House With a Clock in Its Walls''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wein |first=Elizabeth |date=2000 |title=Mystery in a House |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v024/24.2wein.html |journal=[[The Lion and the Unicorn (journal)|The Lion and the Unicorn]] |language=en |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=248–249 |doi=10.1353/uni.2000.0024 |issn=1080-6563 |via=[[Project MUSE]]}}</ref> One of the most substantial academic treatments of Bellairs comes from Dawn Heinecken, professor of [[Women's studies|women's and gender studies]] at the [[University of Louisville]]. Heinecken situates Bellairs in 1970s-era anxieties about gender and changing discourses around masculinity, which were reflected in the era's children's literature.<ref name=":5" />

Conservative critic William Kilpatrick observed of Bellairs that "While his books are quite frightening, they are well written and undergirded by a moral vision" and recommended them to parents who wish to expose their children to age-appropriate literature that both entertains and edifies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kilpatrick|first=William|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/937954417|title=Books that build character: A guide to teaching your child moral values through stories|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1994|isbn=978-0-671-88423-9|location=New York|pages=217|language=English|oclc=937954417}}</ref> English education instructor Randi Dickson suggested that Bellairs' oeuvre evidenced greater literary merit than the works of [[R. L. Stine]], whose horror fiction appeals to a youthful demographic similar to Bellairs's.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickson|first=Randi|date=1998|title=Horror: To Gratify, Not Edify|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41484083|journal=Language Arts|volume=76|issue=2|pages=115–122|doi=10.58680/la199812 |jstor=41484083|issn=0360-9170}}</ref> Educators have used ''The House With the Clock in Its Walls'' as a case study for using storytelling techniques to draw in reluctant readers<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Raymond|first=Kettel|date=1994|title=Motivating the Reluctant Reader: Using the Storytelling Episode Model|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED404628|journal=Storytelling World|volume=3|issue=1|pages=31–33|via=[[ERIC]]}}</ref> and assigned ''The Curse of the Blue Figurine'' to students in a book club.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Mark A. |last2=Zisselsberger |first2=Margarita Gómez |date=2019 |title=Scaffolding and Inequitable Participation in Linguistically Diverse Book Clubs |journal=[[Reading Research Quarterly]] |language=en |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=167–186 |doi=10.1002/rrq.234 |issn=1936-2722 |s2cid=149462377 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Bellairs' books have been translated into Czech, French, German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, among other languages.