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Title: The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1) by Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black ISBN: 0-689-85936-8 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (54 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Slight, but charming faerie fun.
Comment: Two series of books have redefined children's literature in the late 20th- and early 21st-centuries. The first is J.K. Rowling's phenomenal Harry Potter novels, books that transcend age brackets and shatter sales records with each new release. The second is A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, written by the pseudonymous author Lemony Snicket, a collection of slender volumes that can be enjoyed by older readers, but are clearly written with the young folk in mind. In an attempt to crack this lucrative market, renowned fantasy artist Tony DiTerlizzi and relatively unknown author Holly Black introduce THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES with THE FIELD GUIDE.
Both DiTerlizzi and Black love faeries, and it shows, especially when it comes to presentation. THE FIELD GUIDE comes in the same, tiny hardcover form as Lemony Snicket's wildly popular series and is crammed with first-rate, evocative pen and ink illustrations. The suggested age bracket for the book is 6-10, but this is probably being a little generous on the high end of the age scale, as the writing is light and trips along with great speed through the 107 pages. An adult reader, or a well-read child, can work his or her way through THE FIELD GUIDE in less than hour, possibly even less than half an hour.
Though perhaps slightly clichéd -- the children at the heart of the story come to a creepy, old Victorian house and encounter a world of mystery -- THE FIELD GUIDE is still great fun. Author Black follows all the rules of children's literature when it comes to establishing her family: there's a missing parent and the kids are nine-year old twin boys and a thirteen-year old girl. Three is always a great number for children's fantasy, as C.S. Lewis amply demonstrated with THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and J.M. Barrie established even earlier with PETER PAN. As mentioned, the high-quality presentation of the book goes a long way toward glossing over the slight nature of the text, as THE FIELD GUIDE feels substantial despite its miniscule size.
It seems clear that DiTerlizzi and Black intend to stake out a slightly younger territory with THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES than Lemony Snicket and J.K. Rowling have done. THE FIELD GUIDE is written at a level just high enough to engage the reader, but lacks the density of any one of Snicket's books. And the last two Harry Potter novels (THE GOBLET OF FIRE and THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, as of this writing) would simply flatten the child-sized, hardcover FIELD GUIDE.
Though there are reservations to be expressed over THE FIELD GUIDE's general lack of depth, there are only so many Rowling and Snicket books around. While young readers (and those who are young at heart) wait for the next classic, they could do far worse than to chase some faeries in DiTerlizzi and Black's creation. Five pages in, it'll hardly matter how slim the book really is, and five pages from the end, one has already begun to think about grabbing the next installment in the series.
Rating: 3
Summary: Slick packaging, light on substance
Comment: I am a sucker for a nicely bound, handsomely illustrated book. So much so that I will probably buy the rest of the series despite the author's abbreviated attention to some weighty subject matter.
The chief problem is the brevity of the book; a slim seven chapters and hundred-odd pages. Holly Black's attempt to introduce the characters, build a bit of mystery, sympathetically handle one child's pretty severe abandonment issues, and reach some pinnacle of suspense to keep the reader coming back all fall short for lack of space. I feel very much like I have just read an outline for a very interesting novel.
However, I read this with my daughter (age nine) who paid much closer attention for this than with most books. I credit DiTerlizzi's excellent illustrations that kept her looking over my shoulder the entire time. The weakest of these drawings are equal to the best of Brett Helquist's in Lemony Snicket's Unfortunate Events. I mean that to be extremely high praise, as I greatly admire Helquist's abilities, as well. It is, primarily, her interest that will convince me to buy the next in the series.
My hope is that, with introductions out of the way, book two will cover more ground, build suspense, and magically make my buyer's remorse vanish completely.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1 The Field Guide
Comment: I really liked this book because it is a mystery and it was scary. It's about the Grace family. The three Grace children want to catch the boggart, because he does very mean things to them. My favorite character was Simon Grace. I like him because he likes animals like I do. He was very brave. He does dangerous things in order to try to find the boggart. I think people who enjoy mysteries will love this book. I want to read the whole Spiderwick Series soon. I think they are great!
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Title: The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2) by Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black ISBN: 0689859376 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Lucinda's Secret (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 3) by Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black ISBN: 0689859384 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 4) by Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black ISBN: 0689859392 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) by Christopher Paolini ISBN: 0375826688 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Slippery Slope (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 10) by Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist ISBN: 0064410137 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.99 |
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