I typically like to preview the books in my classroom before I place them on my library shelves for students to read. So during my free time at work (lunch and teachers prep), I read through the entire Spiderwick Chronicles written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.

The Chronicles are divided into five well crafted books. The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and the Wrath of Mulgarath.

The first book, The Field Guide, introduces the the Grace children. They consist of two twin brothers and their sister who move into their aunt’s old estate and quickly find themselves caught up in an adventure filled with faeries and other strange creatures. In Book 2, The Seeing Stone, the story picks up the pace a little more as the three young children begin to learn the rules about their newly discovered world.

By book 3, Lucinda’s Secret, the kids are diving deeper into the history of the estate and their family, know that faeries are real, and find that many of these strange creatures are not as charming and well-mannered as portrayed in popular fairy tale stories. Book 4 becomes personal. A family member is kidnapped by several of the estate’s resident creatures and a rescue mission is in order. This sets up this series for the grand finale with a satisfying conclusion in the Wrath of Mulgarath.

Overall, this was a very entertaining children’s series. The story is creepy enough to keep a child interested, yet safe enough where children won’t have any sort of nightmares at bedtime. The plot and storyline had nice appeal to it, and the progression of the the story was continuous and did not drag at all. Children of all ages will love these books and I would recommend this to anyone with kids to pick up this series for a great bedtime adventure.

I’ve also found out recently that The Spiderwick Chronicles will be hitting the big screen sometime in 2008. So this will definitely be great books to read before watching the film with your kids!

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