The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgrath

by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Published by Simon & Schuster Children’s Books

Pages: 672 Total (5 books)

Ages: 9-12

Publisher’s Summary: It all started with a mysterious letter left at a tiny bookstore for authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Its closing lines: “We just want people to know about this. The stuff that has happened to us could happen to anyone.” Little could they imagine the remarkable adventure that awaited them as they followed Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace and a strange old book into a world filled with elves, goblins, dwarves, trolls, and a fantastical menagerie of other creatures. The oddest part is in entering that world, they didn’t leave this one!

“Beautiful books. Before I go any further I need to talk about the illustrations and the books themselves. I’m a sucker for a gorgeous book with deckle edge and amazing illustrations which this set of books has in spades. Each book has an illustrated cover that carries on throughout the entirety of the story. As I turned the pages I found myself wanting to find another piece of art to admire and enhance my reading; I wasn’t disappointed. Toni DiTerlizzi did an amazing job with these books, as he does with all of his books, and brings to life something you would normally only be able to dream about. For me personally I think it’s something appealing to both boys and girls, beautiful, but definitely gruesome enough for the toughest boy.

“Being as I’m a huge fan of anything by Holly Black I read these with great anticipation. In fact I read the entire series in a matter of hours. Black’s imagination coupled with the imagery of DiTerlizzi was astounding. Most of the time I think I read these types of books because as a child I was wholly too serious and as an adult I need a reprieve. It’s just hard for me to believe any individual could come up with a story full of imaginary characters and things/places that you had never heard of. But Black does it with such ease that I’m sure she’s lived there her entire life.

“As for the story of the three Grace children…normal, typical every day kids doing what more than half of America’s children do, cope with divorced parents and moving on with life. Only to have their world flipped upside down, but not by their parents, but a fantastical world they never knew existed until moving to their Aunt Lucinda’s home. Jared stumbles upon a secret room filled with treasures from his great grandfather’s past as well as a field guide that changes their view of the world forever.

“I will warn, some of the situations and images in these books are a bit graphic. Depending on how sensitive your child is you may want to wait until they are a bit older to have them read them or they may end up with a few bad dreams. With that one exception I will say these are wonderful books, one’s that I will definitely be sharing with my own kiddos when they are a bit older.”

The1stdaughter Recommends: Ages 10 and up for both boys and girls who love to imagine something amazing begins outside their very own doorstep!

“On a side note, there are three new books in the series and the third has just recently come out. Watch the trailer for it below:”

These books were given to me as a gift for my birthday last year for use in our home library.
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