Spiderwick Chronicles

The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Tony DiTerlizzi, is a fast paced series with enough “ooooooooh” to keep most children reading--without giving them nightmares. The story begins with the children of the Grace family and their mother moving into Aunt Lucinda’s Victorian home. Mallory, Simon, and Jared see The Spiderwick Estate as old, run down, spider-filled, dusty, with strange noises come from the walls. While checking out the noises, Jared finds a secret room filled with knick-knacks. The room belongs to Thimbletack, a grumpy household brownie that doesn’t like his things disturbed. Jared upsets Thimbletack by searching for and finding a book titled Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Despite the warnings of the brownie and his brother and sister, Jared keeps the book, setting the stage for the rest of the series.

The Field Guide has a “grossness factor” that many young readers will enjoy. Once you start reading this short diary-like book, you cannot put it down. Now would be a wonderful time to read this fascinating adventure before seeing the movie put out by Nickelodeon and Paramount pictures. The books and movie will entertain as well as teach valuable real life lessons. The Spiderwick series contains 5 volumes, The Field Guide (#1); The Seeing Stone (#2); Lucinda’s Secret (#3); The Ironwood Tree (#4); The Wrath of Mulgarath (#5). Also by this author are supplemental Spiderwick books: Care and Feeding of Sprites, The Nixie’s Song, and Authur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. This series will be loved by both children and adults and can be found at the Uinta County Library.

Reviewed by Michelle Kallas