The Grace kids discover a world of magic, adventure and danger thanks to the Spiderwick Chronicles. We review their story!
Author: Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
The best-selling Spiderwick Chronicles tells the story of the Grace kids - Jared, his twin brother Simon and their big sister Mallory. Their mom just split from their dad, Jared's been getting in trouble for fighting at school and they need a fresh start. So they pack up Mallory's fencing gear, Simon's pets and move into aunt Lucinda's old house. Before you know it, they've discovered a magical world with Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Here's the 411 on the five books in the series with our review.
Telling the Tale
Nearly 100 years before the story begins, Arthur Spiderwick discovered the magical world of fairies around him and wrote a book about it. But, the information was dangerous and he had to hide it before evil creatures got their hands on it. When Jared finds the Field Guide, the fairy world finds him and adventure follows. The kids end up battling goblins, dodging trolls, outsmarting elves, running from dwarves, making friends with a brownie and a hobgoblin, facing dragons and even riding a griffin!
Five Fine Fables
Here's the list of books in the Spiderwick Chronicles, including summaries.
Books vs. Movie vs. Video Game
The movie takes the edge off, but the books go fairly old-school with fairies that are pretty, but dangerous too. There are bloody battles, Hogsqueal the hobgoblin cussing like mad (nothing you couldn't say in chat, but he comes close!) and even a roasted cat! The video game follows the movie rather than the books, skipping the gruesome stuff and lots of drama to deliver more action!
Dare You Discover the Magic?
The Spiderwick Chronicles is a fantastic series of books with terrific characters, a great story, gorgeous artwork, old-school magic and a lot of family drama! Unfortunately, at $10 for each small book, it takes buckets of faerie gold to discover this magic!
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