Rose Rita is thrilled when her parents agree to let her go on a two-week summer trip with her friend Mrs. Zimmermann - who is a witch. She knows that it will be a dangerous adventure, but suspects nothing until they drive through a tunnel on the highway - and find them -selves in the snowbound winter of 1828, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country.

This series may have started off chronicling the magical adventures of Lewis Barnavelt, but I am enjoying the author’s change of focus towards the characters of Mrs. Zimmermann and Rose Rita Pottinger so much that I don’t care if we don’t see as much of Lewis and his zany uncle. This book had the ladies travel back in time to 1828, in the hopes of restoring Mrs. Zimmermann’s magic and helping solve a “horrible injustice” from happening to her magical teacher (who was just a little girl at the time). Not only do we get a fun view back in time to the magical views of the Pennsylvania Dutch (a superstitious bunch, from the sounds of it) and their simpler way of life, but we get to see Rose Rita take charge and help solve a bunch of magical problems. She is at that awkward age when she’s beginning to become a more grown up young lady, so with her mind engaged and her abilities showcased, we get to see her earn some confidence that will help when she returns to the real world. The story ends happily, with Mrs. Zimmermann’s magical abilities back in action, so I’m sure that the next novel will see even more action as our whole team of players is at 100%! ( )

Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman are on another summer holiday trip together, but this time they get pulled back in time to help Mrs. Zimmerman's magical mentor right a long-ago wrong. If they succeed, they may just be able to return Mrs. Zimmerman to her full witchy powers. Another fun entry in the series. I love that Charlie loves these books, and they're a hoot to read aloud at bedtime. ( )

The Ghost in the Mirror (Book 4) is my favorite, so far, of the book series that began with The House with the Clock in Its Walls. In Ghost (book four), Rose Rita Pottinger (remember, these books were written and published before JK Rowling's Harry Potter series) and Mrs. Zimmerman go on another trip together, this time back in time. Their adventure happens simultaneously with Lewis and Uncle Jonathan's trip to Europe in The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder (Book 5).

While Mrs. Zimmerman took Rose Rita with her on another trip in The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring, this time the duo has to solve a puzzle that begins when a mirror owned by Mrs. Zimmerman begins showing her images of her grandmother, Granny Wetherbee, who tells her that she has to fix the first problem in order to regain her magical powers, which she lost most of in The Letter. So they pack up Mrs. Zimmerman's car and head east to Pennsylvania and Amish country.

After passing through a particularly long mountain tunnel, they emerge in a whole different time period, 1828. While Mrs. Zimmerman had expected them to travel to the past, even she is surprised to have gone so far back, and even more surprised to learn that the young woman who helps rescue them when the get stuck in a snow bank is her Granny Wetherbee as a girl.

They learn that the town is turning against the family of Granny Wetherbee, known as Hilda as a girl, because her mother's stepfather, Grampa Drexel, has been accused of being a witch and casting hexes on people and livestock, even on the weather, which has been especially harsh that winter.

Mrs. Zimmerman learns that Grampa Drexel does have some magical ability, so tries to use her mirror, which she brought with her, to speak again to Granny Wetherbee. While communicating with Granny, a demonic presence interferes and casts a hex on Mrs. Zimmerman, knocking her unconscious and stealing her memory.

Grampa Drexel and Hilda are sympathetic toward Rose Rita, who suddenly finds herself alone in a time period in which everything, even the language people speak, seems foreign, so they work to help Mrs. Zimmerman recover or the two will be stuck forever in that time period. Rose Rita learns that Grampa Drexel made a magical crystal for Hilda to use, which has to reside in the earth for seven years before it is usable, so she asks him to make one for Mrs. Zimmerman in order to help Mrs. Zimmerman get her magical powers back.

In the meantime, the youngest son, Heinrich, helps Rose Rita try to figure out who hexed Mrs. Zimmerman by going around to every farm via horse and wagon to find out who has anything against the family. Rose Rita is able to determine that the further away people are from a particular farm, the more people like and respect the Zimmerman family, so she believes that the man who owns that farm, Mr. Stoltzfuss, is the person actually causing the hexes, turning the townsfolk against Grampa Drexel.

Stoltzfuss realizes that Rose Rita is onto him, so tries to trap her, finally succeeding in capturing both Rose Rita and Heinrich, but Mrs. Zimmerman and Hilda figure out who has taken them, and are able to rescue them just before Stoltzfuss can sacrifice them to a demon that promises to lead him to an ancient Drexel fortune buried on the Zimmerman farm.

Through her courageous perseverance, and a lot of help from her friends, Rose Rita saves the family, rids the community of a black witch, and reconnects Mrs. Zimmerman to her magical powers. ( )

The Ghost in the Mirror is another story in the Lewis Barnavelt series by John Bellairs (subsequently completed by Brad Strickland). This is also another story featuring Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman which again begs the question why this was called the Lewis Barnavelt series... At any rate, the reader follows Rose Rita & Mrs. Zimmerman as they travel back in time in the hopes of righting a 'great wrong' and thereby restoring the magical powers that Mrs. Z lost in the previous book (The Figure in the Shadows if you're not caught up). This was a much darker narrative with threatened human sacrifice and something akin to voodoo magic. However, the narrative was just another cookie cutter format with absolutely no surprises. It honestly felt like he had a little rubric that he was following for his stories and he just plugged in details like 'Rose Rita & Mrs. Z main characters' + '19th century era' + 'dark magic' and hoping for a good result. I was disappointed especially as this book didn't even have the benefit of illustrations sprinkled throughout like the other installments in the series. (Yes, this is the last in this series that I'm going to read.) This was lukewarm at best and honestly I'm happy to have finished my time with these characters (especially Rose Rita). 1/10 ( )