My best friend sent my daughter, a great reader, the first book in the Spiderwick Chronicles, and then, post facto said, "Mmm...maybe not for a first grader. You should read it first to test it out." So I read The Field Guide, the first in the Spiderwick Chronicles and was totally hooked.
I ran to the library to get the rest of the series (there are five in the first series, but there's a follow-on series called "Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles" which I think I'll be checking out shortly), but only books 3-5 were available. I inhaled them. Today, weeks later, I finally got book 2 from the library, so I can close this series down.
Jared, his twin brother Simon, his older sister Mallory, and his newly-divorced mom have left the city and moved to Great-aunt Lucy's creepy and ramshackle house in the country. They've left partly to have a fresh start after the divorce, and partly because Jared has been getting into a lot of trouble in school. As soon as they arrive at Spiderwick estates, Jared senses there's something really weird going on, and before too long, he learns what it is: there are faerie creatures all over Spiderwick. The kids work together (though not always harmoniously) to deal with the brownies, boggarts, elves, hobgoblins, goblins, trolls, etc. and, as you might imagine, things turn out OK at the end.
Fun, bright, and interesting, but also a pretty true-to-heart representation of the emotional life of post-divorce kids. I loved the series!
(Because each book was about 60 pages including illustrations, I'm counting all five as one installment, even though it would take a huge whack at my forty-book goal if I didn't!!)
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