The Field Guide by Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi Series: The Spiderwick Chronicles #1
on May 1, 2003
Genres: Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / General, Juvenile Fiction / Fantasy & Magic, Juvenile Fiction / Horror
Pages: 107
Format: Hardcover
Source: Half Price Books
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Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the international bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles with the first instalment in the adventures of the Grace children.
After finding a mysterious handmade field guide in the attic of the ramshackle old mansion they've just moved into, the Grace children - Jared, Simon and Mallory - discover that there's a magical and maybe dangerous world existing parallel to our own - the world of faerie.
The children want to share what they know, but the faeires will do everything possible to stop their secrets being revealed . . .
I have owned the first five books in “The Spiderwick Chronicles” for several years and always wanted to get around to reading them, but like a lot of stuff I kept putting off reading the five books even though I knew they would be easy reads. I recently started a “read my book shelves” challenge in my mind and it has helped me to start reading my books. I decided to read these 5 books because it would allow my brain to start feeling like I was accomplishing reading and sometimes that is what we have to do as readers when we have lapsed. We have to jump start our reading back up and that is why I chose to read this book.
I went into the first book of “The Spiderwick Chronicles” with an open heart and open-mind. I have not been reading very much because of life. I started a job that takes a lot of time and I use all the excuses to just avoid reading. I decided to stop listening to that nagging voice that stops me from just putting my eyes to a page and decided to do this easy read first. Due to going into it with a simple mind, I enjoyed this book.
This book surprised me in that it did not instantly feel like it was the first book of a series, usually we are introduced to the main villain and plot points in a first book of a series. We just usually don’t see a lot of resolution until we get further in the series. This book doesn’t really do that, instead it introduces us to some important characters and that is about it. We get that it is going to be about Faeries and magical worlds, but it doesn’t seem to hint at more than that. Normally, this would upset me and make me wonder why I am reading a series because I want those threads. It didn’t upset me as much here.
I wanted something that felt a little less detailed and a little less than an overwhelmingly long book full of setting and description. This first book was that. It had like 107 pages to just establish some things and that is what it does. It just established who these kids are, what their world is slightly, and how they are introduced to the faerie elements. Due to it not going much deeper, in my opinion, it didn’t get a larger score because it felt a bit flat. While I didn’t want a lot of description, I would argue that as a reader I always want a bit. There was just a bit less than I wanted, but given I haven’t read anything for awhile I knew that I was going to be more critical. What speaks volumes more than my feelings about description is that I kept reading the series.
If you are looking for a quick read, this is going to be a book for you. One of the benchmarks that always puts a book either at 2 or 3 stars is did I enjoy it or did I find it entertaining, “The Field Guide” definitely was entertaining. I did enjoy it, so it is a 3 star because it wasn’t spectacular. The reality is though that books do NOT have to be 5 star reads. 3 star reads to me, as a reader, means that it was an average read that I actually enjoyed. 4 is reserved when there was an element that I really enjoyed and 5 is reserved for OMG this is a favorite book that I read. So “The Field Guide” getting 3 stars is exactly as it should be because I would recommend it to others to read. Yes, that is me hinting that you should give it a chance. Maybe go to your local library and find a copy to read?
There are five books in the initial series of “The Spiderwick Chronicles”, but a few years later Tony and Holly got back together to write three more books that are called “Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles” which I have yet to read. I plan on buying these before too much longer so that I can say I have read most of what they have published for this world.
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