The Spiderwick Chronicles
Did finishing up the (amazing!) Harry Potter series knock you off of your horse a bit? If so, it’s best if you climb back on it in a hurry. Reading is an addiction, but unfortunately it’s one that’s easily broken by a lot people. When you stop, it can take a really long time to get started again. J.K Rowling would be devastated if you fell into that rut.
‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ is a series of five books authored by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, and they tell the tale of two twin brothers, their sister, and the mythical series of adventures they inadvertently fall into upon finding a book in their great-great uncles hidden home library. I’ve never been one to spoil stories for people, and I have no intentions of starting that practice now, so that’s pretty much all you’re going to get out of me in terms of the plot line.
Were the books any good? I think so, more especially for the younger children that they were authored for. Harry Potter may have been labeled a children’s book, but 800+ page novels are incredibly daunting challenges for a younger reader, regardless of how eager they may be. ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ are considerably shorter; I was able to read the entire series in one afternoon. Only one of the books was larger than 108 pages, but even that number is a bit misleading; the boos are partially illustrated, cutting the reading material on those pages by maybe a quarter or more.
Potter may have been a bit scary for younger children as well; something that I think you’re unlikely to find as much of in this series. Things were not ‘boring,’ but they were just a bit more tame. You never got the sense, until maybe the last bit of the 5th book, that characters were in any kind mortal danger.
The vocabulary used in the series is also much more accessible to a younger audience. At times Ms. Rowling had me running to my dictionary, and I read at a collegiate level. For kids there will still be a few words that will trip them up a bit, but that’s really not a bad thing, that’s how they learn. It’s just learning with a lot less frustration, and finishing the novels will be big confidence boosters for youngsters.
Adults? These will hold your attention if you’re into the fantasy genre; though they definitely have a whimsical/fairy tale like quality to them. The ‘world’ isn’t nearly as vivid as Rowling’s, the characters are not quite as deep, and the bad guys aren’t anywhere near as bad; but there just wasn’t enough room in between the front and rear covers to accomplish all that. The writing is good, and I did enjoy them. For most, I think they’d make nice lunch hour companions for a week or two, depending on the speed at which you read.
A movie is due in 2008, release date to be determined. This is one of the few books I think might translate better to film than to paper if done correctly, but it probably wont be. Go ahead and read them so you can whine and moan with me about what the director changed or cut out. It’s so much FUN!
–Jeremy Hobbs
