2 books I need help finding.

[mewmew13]

Book #1
In 3rd grade like 2002-2003 I read a novel that was about a boy who got caught in a wildfire. He ran towards a creek to escape but the creek was full of fish that had "boiled" to death, so he got out of there. Next he ran to a cave but came to the conclusion that he would cook as if he were in an oven and ditched that idea too.
I cant remember anything else about it except that teenagers accidentally started the fire with matches.

Book #2
I read this book in 5th grade. Everyone believes it's "the house with a clock in its walls" but I'm pretty certain it's not!
It's about a boy who goes to his uncle or grandfathers mansion type thing. Everything on the property is overgrown. The boy finds a secret passage in the house with stairs that go on forever. At the base is a weird looking thing on a boat that takes people to whatever is on the other side of the water.
There turns out to be a city or something after that but I've forgotten!

Comments

[leecetheartist]

John Bellairs wrote a lot of books - it's possible that your book #2 is one of them, it sounds a lot like something he'd write, even if it's not The House with a Clock in its walls.

[hokuton_punch]

Is the second one House of Dies Drear, maybe?

[fred_mouse]

More context on Book 1 please -- how old do you think the book is, country you read it in? The one off the top of my head that has teenagers accidentally starting a fire is Ivan Southall's 'Ash Road', which is an Australian kids novel written in the 1960s. It is multiple decades since I read it, so don't remember whether the other details match or not.

[dogstar]

I think there's a set-by-teens wildfire in one of the Bill Wallace books (He wrote A Dog Called Kitty and a few others that sort of go with 'kid moves to the country, learns to interact with/respect/tolerate nature/animals/rural things') - but it's been a VERY long time and I can't remember the deets.

Seconding that the second sure does sound like John Bellairs- there's a number of sequels to the House With A Clock In Its Walls.

[greendryad]

Your first book sounds like The Hatchet by Gary Poulsen. A boy/guy (he's in his early teens, I believe) is surviving in the wilderness. One of the plot points of the book is that there is a wildfire. He follows the animals and does what they do.