Reading - A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2)

A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2)

by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

Starting where A NIXIE'S SONG ended, the story has Nick and Laurie facing a calamitous invasion of giants. When the giants burn down their housing development, Nick and Laurie turn to the mermaids for advice. The rippling, echoing voices of the cruel mermaids add an exotic element to the audio performance.

Reading - The Wrath of Mulgarath (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 5 of 5

 

The Wrath of Mulgarath (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 5 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

Thirteen-year-old Mallory and nine-year-old twins Jared and Simon return to the Spiderwick Estate only to find their home in shambles, with trash and broken furniture scattered across the lawn and Simon's griffin chasing a "goblin" across the roof. The faerie world that the Grace kids have so slowly probed in this series has finally come home to roost.

Reading - The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 4 of 5

The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 4 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

 A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

The Grace children are back for their fourth adventure in the quest to understand and protect Arthur Spiderwick's guide, a book that offers information about the faerie world. Mallory, the oldest, goes missing from a fencing match. The twins, Jared and Simon, must solve a riddle to save her from evil dwarves who want to create a world totally out of metal with their sister as their queen.

 

Reading - Lucinda's Secret (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 3 of 5

Lucinda's Secret  (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 3 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

The Grace kids--13-year-old Mallory and 9-year-old twins Jared and Simon--get to catch their breath in the third installment of the Spiderwick Chronicles, as they visit their "crazy old" Aunt Lucinda for some help in deciding the fate of the troublesome Field Guide.

 

Fresh from near-fatal goblin and troll attacks in the previous book (The Seeing Stone), the children are torn over whether to hang onto their long-lost great-great-uncle's book or to turn it over to the menacing faeries. Thimbletack--the house brownie who's transmogrified into an angry "boggart"--has lost his patience with the kids, and he starts subjecting Jared to increasingly nasty pranks. Hoping that Lucinda might know something about Uncle Arthur's fate (or at least have some advice on how to fend off the faeries), the three children talk their mom into a trip to the asylum for a visit--but there they learn their situation might be even more dangerous than they imagined. (And, as readers of the series know, the kids already thought they were in hot water.)

 

 

 

Reading - The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 2 of 5

The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 2 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

After making tentative peace with Thimbletack (a coveralled house brownie who's "the size of a pencil"), Jared chooses to ignore the creature's pleas that he destroy his great-great-uncle's mysterious tome, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Thimbletack warns, "You kept the book despite my advice./Sooner or later there'll be a price." Sure enough, the brownie soon sniffs out a "fell smell in the air," and the disappearance of Simon's new cat starts to make sense. And if the chapter titled "IN WHICH Mallory Finally Gets to Put Her Rapier to Good Use" doesn't get your heart racing as fast as the kids', just wait till you get a load of the troll. ("Cooome baaack. I haaave something for youuu.")

Reading - The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 1 of 5

The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 1 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

After finding a mysterious, handmade field guide in the attic of the ramshackle old mansion they’ve just moved into, Jared; his twin brother, Simon; and their older sister, Mallory, discover that there’s a magical and maybe dangerous world existing parallel to our own—the world of faerie.

The Grace children want to share their story, but the faeries will do everything possible to stop them...

Reading - Doll Bones

Doll Bones by Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.

But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen—and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen’s ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?