The Spiderwick Chronicles (Boxed Set): The Field Guide; The Seeing Stone; Lucinda's Secret; The Ironwood Tree; The Wrath of Mulgrath
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend 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,… Product details and pricing info |
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139 Customer Reviews Posted
- spiderwick
- i relly liked the book theironwood tree but they need to give a update on
the griffin i would dfinitly reed the 5th book. - 2005-02-12, 4 of 5 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Beware the Mulgaraths of the marketing world
- The Spiderwick books flit between delightful fairy story, mundane family life, sinister mystery, and rollicking high adventure and the combination is indeed a magical one. While the books vary in their allure--book two is by far the best read--together they create a convincing, fully realized world of magic that at once draws from a long tradition of fairy lore (Black did her research...) and is something entirely new (...and then let her imagination take over).
Despite my sincere enjoyment of the stories, I did find some of the marketing ploys of this five-book set a bit irksome. The series of unfortunate letters which opened each of the books smacked of copycat commercialism. Black and DiTerlizzi are far too pedestrian--a word which here means lacking any connection to a mysterious Beatrice or V.F.D.--to be introduced as "characters" interacting in the fictional world of the Grace children. Furthermore, I'm baffled by the choice to break up the five episodes into separate books when the overall storyline really dictates a single novel. The structure of these stories is less Harry Potter and more Huckleberry Finn--and should have been packaged as such. I'm sure some upstanding editor at Simon and Schuster waged a battle of epic proportions on this very issue; sadly, in the fairyland of publishing, the Mulgaraths of the marketing world won. After all, you can't sell a boxed set when you only have one book.
One final note: Perhaps publishers do have a conscience. Suppressed guilt would explain the lavish and detailed craftsmanship that went into the production of the books, from cover design to paper choice. These details make the stories that much more of a joy to read; and on that score, the reader wins. - 2005-01-23, 10 of 11 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Brownies Under the Bed
- I loved these books. Fun and exciting. After reading one of the books and turning off the light, I could swear there were faeries running around the room! Holly Black brings the fey to life. I hope she continues the Spiderwick Chronicles, I'm anxious for more. The illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi are wonderful as well. I recommend these books to everyone, no matter what their age.
- 2005-01-20, 5 of 5 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- these books are awesome
- one reason i really liked these books was because of the depictions of the mystical creatures the dwarves and trolls and faeries and elves there all shown so differently than any other book. The drawings in the book are great too they show lots of pictures of very scary looking creatures. All 5 books could be read in the time you spend on one chapter book. thats whats cool about them.the books are made for young kids but I reccommend them to any young adult who wants a quick read.its a wonderful about kids who hear things in the wall and it turns out to be a brownie. And it leads to them finding a book with hidden secrets of the mystical underground. It turns out to be a huge adventure and 5 amazing books.
- 2005-01-12, 2 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Exciting books for mid-level readers
- My son was less than enthusiastic about reading until he got his hands on these books. We had a lot of trouble finding books that were interesting and exciting that were written for mid-level readers (My son was a 3rd grader when we bought the 1st four books). He wasn't quite ready for Harry Potter and ...Unfortunate Events. He read the whole Spiderwick series in a week and it built his confidence and enthusiasm to the point that he now (7 months later) LOVES to read just about anything we hand him. I would (and do) reccommend these books to all of my friends!
- 2004-12-28, 8 of 8 people found this review helpful, Rated:
