Chapter Book #6 The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide

Author:  Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

Title: The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide

Illustrator: Tony DiTerlizzi and Dan Potash

Readability: 3.1

Genre: Chapter Book           

Subgenre: Fantasy

Theme: Curiosity could kill the cat, Magic, Moving to a new place is not always bad

Character: Jared Grace, Simon Grace, Mallory Grace,

Award(s) date of publication: 2003

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 978-0-689-85936-6

Summary:

 The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide is the first part of a three series tale. Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace moved into their Mom’s old house due to their dad leaving and Jared getting into trouble at school. The house was very old and looked like multiple shacks stacked upon each other. Jared was the most ungrateful out of the three children understanding why they had to move into the house but not wanting to. As the children begin to unpack the car and bring their belongings into the house Jared stopped at the doorway and called for his mom but received no answer just heard rattles in the walls. His sister Mallory and his brother Simon said it was probably just a squirrel.

Once they began to unpack their mom stayed in a room, Mallory had her own room, and the boys shared a room. Simon had many pets and Jared could not sleep well due to all the scratching and noises from the tanks around the room.  Suddenly their sister was telling them to wake up to see what the sounds were. Once they found the place where they were hearing the sounds they listened closely and then saw a weird object. The removed the objects and Jared crawled in the dumbwaiter and rode it up to a room that they had never seen before. Jared found a poem with a mysterious saying and as soon as he finish reading it their mother returned from the store. Then he heard ticking and another letter appeared. After Jared had told everyone about the note Simon believed him although Mallory did not. When Mallory woke up the next morning her hair was knotted to her brass headboard and there were bruises on her arms. Later Jared went exploring looking for another way to get to the room he followed the riddle he found on the latter. He discovered a chest with a hidden compartment, in this compartment was brown leather book that said Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You.  It was full of watercolor sketches; this book was full of information about faeries. 

Jared began reading the book; it talked a lot about catching boggart. Jared began to try to catch this boggart, while preparing the kitchen to catch the boggart his mother called out to him and told him to go to bed. When Jared was awaken the next morning his mother told him to get a broom and begins to clean the kitchen. The boggart had attack the kitchen and there was stuff everywhere!  In the freezer Simon found both of his tadpoles, Jared was immediately yelled at by their mother, after cleaning the mess their mother said to Jared if had another outburst she was taking him to see someone.

 Jared and his siblings hung up a small house for the boggart to live in and stop messing with them. Once the house was hung the house Simon said they should leave a note, then Jared saw a watercolor painting of a man and little girl. Mallory wrote a note telling the boggart that they were sorry for messing up its first house and hope he like the new one, and hoped he would not pinch them anymore. The story ends with the kids going up stairs and finding a little person that resembles a mouse who tells them to throw the book away.

Use in the classroom:

This is a great book to introduce a class into fantasy literature. This story shows the characters going and trying to solve a problem and see the story unfold with each page turn. Students could evaluate each character; decide which character they would want to be. Students could also make up stories on how they would catch the boggart or describe the house in their own words.