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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