The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book One - The Field Guide

     Not surprisingly, this was a very quick read for me. This was actually my second time reading this book from the Spiderwick Chronicles, I never did read the others. But when your younger sister insists you read it, you should oblige her.

      Written by Holly Black and Toni DiTerlizzi, The Field Guide was written after receiving a 'letter', informing them of the magical and invisible world of faeries and creatures around us. They then met with the Grace children, and wrote the Spiderwick Chronicles in hopes to open our eyes to this invisible world.

     The Grace children have moved, their parents are divorced, their dad left them, and not to mention their new home is a dump. I believe Holly and Toni did a commendable job portraying the anger and angst some children can feel after their parents divorce.
     Being written for children (10-13 is the range I would give), the writing is simple to understand, yet gives enough detail for a picture to be formed in your head. The illustrations (The handiwork of Toni DiTerlizzi) were cute and well done, but there were incidences when the picture in my head did not match the picture drawn. Personally, I like the picture in my head better, but don't ask me to draw it, I'm not that talented.

     One of the goals for this blog is to provide information for parents and readers alike to find 'clean' reads suitable for their children or themselves. In all my reviews I will mention general themes from the book, language, sexual/romantic interaction, and violence.

     Themes:
Post-Divorce. Trust and distrust. Faeries and magic/mythical creatures.

     Language:
Mallory says 'crappier' in the beginning, otherwise there is zero cussing or swearing. They do, however, poke fun at their 'insane' aunt a couple of times.

     Sexual/Romantic Interaction
The Grace children's parents are divorced.

     Violence
Jared would get in fights at school. Mallory and Simon get bruised. Mallory's hair is tied to her bed frame. Simon's pet tadpoles are frozen in the freezer, and his two pet mice get kidnapped, but are returned unharmed.

     I would give The Field Guide a rating of PG

     On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = horrible, 2 = OK, 3 = I liked it, 4 = I really liked it, 5 = I loved it), I would give Book one of the Spiderwick Chronicles a 3