Oldies But Goodies
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: The Complete Spiderwick Chronicles
by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
by Karen S. Wiesner
Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review.
There are a number of young adult fantasy series that feature children who discover a hidden world of supernatural creatures all around them--Fablehaven (Brandon Mull) and The Last Apprentice (Joseph Delaney) are two of my favorites, but you could include many others like Twilight Saga, The Immortal Instruments, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and on and on. Regardless of how often it's been done before, that doesn't necessarily make it any less enjoyable.
Another of this type that had me enthralled when the first came out in 2003 was The Spiderwick Chronicles that was said to be written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, though the Wikipedia page confusingly states a quote by DiTerlizzi (who tends to always be listed first) that "due to the collaborative effort he and Black put into the books, there is no individual credit as to who did the writing and who did the illustrations." Whatever that means. I get the feeling there's a deeper story there I'm too lazy to sniff out.
In any case, the first set of Spiderwick stories had five entries with the first three released in 2003, the last two in 2004, including The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgarath. A spinoff series called Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles came out in 2007, 2008, and 2009 with the three stories: Nixie's Song, A Giant Problem, and The Wyrm King. Additionally, companion books were published in 2005-2007, and these include Arther Spiderwick's Notebook for Fantastical Observations; Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You; Care and Feeding of Sprites; and A Grand Tour of the Enchanted World, Navigated by Thimbletack.
In the original series, after their parents' divorce, the Grace family, now headed by the mother Helen, is forced to move to the decrepit Spiderwick Estate where the children's long lost great-great-uncle disappeared. Simon and Jared are nine-year-old twins while their older sister Mallory is thirteen. Their first night there, a dumbwaiter that goes to the secret library on the second floor is discovered but later a door to the library is found in a hall closet. In an attic trunk, Jared finds the handwritten, illustrated field journal of Arthur Spiderwick that contains information on the various types of supernatural creatures, especially fairies, that live in the estate's surrounding forest. A brownie named Thumbtack is roused to anger by their meddling and punishes them by trashing rooms in the house and assaulting the children. But, once they realize what who and what he is and what they've done to his home, they make amends. From that point on, he aids them, though he wants Jared to destroy the field journal because he knows what happened to Arthur--and could easily happen to them as well--if Mulgarath, an ogre who wants to rule the world, finds out about them.
The characterization pulled me into this book from the first. Jared is angry about the divorce and he's gotten in a lot of trouble lately because of it. So it makes sense that he's blamed for the problems Thumbtack causes in retaliation for them destroying his nest inside the walls of the house. Simon is the bookish one of the two, the opposite of his twin, and loves animals. Mallory starts out the story in the usual way you'd expect of a teenager girl who's relied on by parents to care for her younger brothers--and also feeling the sting of what her cheating father did to their mother. She's crabby, judgmental of her brothers, always assuming they're causing trouble without justification. Whenever she gets a rare moment to herself, all she wants to do is practice her fencing. Despite the first impressions we get of her, she learns to become a caring, protective sister and her role in the events that follow is pivotal. In the course of the story told through the first five books, we also eventually meet Arthur Spiderwick and his daughter Lucinda, finding out through the twins' and Mallory's investigations what caused the trouble in the first place. Thumbtack is initially disgruntled, and he does often seem amusingly in a bad mood. He's a complex being, one the Grace family couldn't have survived without.
Given that these books aren't really intended for those over 12 years old (I read what I want, regardless of limitations), they're not really scary. They just skirt the edge of frightening. The movie and videogame released in 2008 based on the first five books are both slightly scarier than the books, and apparently the April 2024 RokuChannel TV series is supposed to be much, much darker than either.
The spinoff Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles gives a glimpse of former characters but mostly follows a new protagonist, 11-year-old Nicholas Vargas, accompanied by his stepsister Laurie and big brother Julian in brand-new adventures with supernatural creatures. In a bit of unprecedented, crazy self-insertion that I'm reluctant to call genius but also can't help chuckling about, the three meet up with the authors of Spiderwick Chronicles, DiTerlizzi and Black, at a booksigning. Tony and Holly don't believe their wild tale, but not long afterward they meet Jared and Simon, who agree to help them.
Thanks to how fast the five books in the original series came out, I read them equally fast, purchasing them as soon as they were published in hardcover. I also read Nixie's Song, but the next two books took a long to come out, comparatively (releases were spaced apart by about a year each). I admit I wasn't as enamored of the first entry in the spinoff series and never purchased the final two, something I intend to rectify with the promise of the TV series coming out soon (at the time of this writing). I'm not sure I will like Nixie's Song any better this time or if the two books that followed will make a difference in my initial impression, but I do know I thoroughly enjoyed the film made of the original series and the idea of a reboot as an ongoing series is equally exciting.
Whether you read this series at the height of its popularity or if you've never before read it, now might be a good time. Don't let the reading age recommendation intimidate you. Whatever your age, if you're a fan of supernatural literature populated with a wide range of complex, fantastical creatures, this has everything you're sure to love.
Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.
Karen Wiesner is an
award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books
and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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