The Spiderwick Chronicles

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The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Field Guide The Seeing Stone Lucinda's Secret The Ironwood Tree The Wrath of Mulgarath
Author	Holly Black Tony DiTerlizzi
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature Fantasy
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Published	May 2003 – September 2004
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)

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The Spiderwick Chronicles is a series of children's books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into Spiderwick Estate and discover a world of faeries that they never knew existed.

The Field Guide was first published in 2003 and followed by four more novels, along with several companion books. A second series, entitled Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, is also being written, with The Nixie's Song published in September 2007 and A Giant Problem in September 2008.

A feature film adaptation, also titled The Spiderwick Chronicles, was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and premiered on February 14, 2008; an accompanying video game was released in early February.

Contents 1 The Spiderwick Chronicles 1.1 The Field Guide 1.2 The Seeing Stone 1.3 Lucinda's Secret 1.4 The Ironwood Tree 1.5 The Wrath of Mulgarath 2 Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles 2.1 The Nixie's Song 2.2 A Giant Problem 2.3 The Wyrm King 3 Accompanying books 4 Characters 4.1 Humans 4.2 Faeries 5 Writing 6 Film adaptation 7 Trivia and Goofs 8 Video game 9 References 10 External links

[edit] The Spiderwick Chronicles

[edit] The Field Guide

The Field Guide, the first book in the series, was published in May 2003. It opens in New England, United States, where nine-year-old twins Jared and Simon and their thirteen-year-old sister Mallory move to the decrepit Spiderwick Estate with their mother, Helen. They discover a secret library/study hidden in the house, and later in the story, they find Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You in a chest in the attic, which is a book full of information on faeries.

Several days later, while Jared, Simon and Mallory are in their great Uncle Arthur's hidden study, a small man with a hat appears. The little man, named Thimbletack, is in fact a brownie that has transformed into a boggart when neglected. When a boggart, Thimbletack caused them all much trouble. He commands them to not open and read the Field Guide and leave it alone or suffer a terrible fate.

[edit] The Seeing Stone

The Seeing Stone was also published in May 2003. After ignoring Thimbletack's warning, Simon is abducted by a group of invisible goblins. Thimbletack guides Jared to a seeing stone device created by his great-uncle which gives the ability to see faeries, called the Sight. Mallory and Jared go searching for him, narrowly escaping capture, and find the goblin camp. While rescuing Simon, the hobgoblin Hogsqueal convinces them to help him escape in exchange for his help in retrieving Simon. Hogsqueal spits in their eyes, giving them the Sight permanently. After rescuing Simon, they flee and lead the goblins to the troll where they meet their end. They rescue the rest of the goblin's victims and take an injured griffin back to their house.

[edit] Lucinda's Secret

Lucinda's Secret was published on October 1, 2003. The Grace children visit their Great-Aunt Lucinda, who is now in a psychiatric hospital. When they speak to her, they learn more about the world of faerie creatures, the Field Guide, and its author, Arthur Spiderwick, who was Aunt Lucinda's father. Arthur had disappeared when Lucinda was still a little girl and the Grace children later find out where he disappeared to when they stumble upon a forest of elves. On their journey they meet Stray-Sods, grass that can move, and a Phooka, a strange creature that talks only in riddles. Jared is captured by the elves, but tricks them by saying he is "Simon" and they promise to keep "Simon" there until they bring the guide. Jared says he isn't "Simon" but Jared, and they let him out but only by promising them that they will bring the field guide to them when it is found.

[edit] The Ironwood Tree

The Ironwood Tree was published on April 6, 2004. The family attends Mallory's fencing contest at school. During the contest, Jared finds a boy identical to him going through Mallory's bag. He transforms into a smaller kid when Jared attempts to scare him with his knife. When Jared and Simon discover that Mallory has disappeared, they search for her in an abandoned quarry, but wind up being kept prisoner by dwarves. Mallory is revealed to be sleeping in a glass-coffin dressed in medieval garb, with the dwarves saying she is now immortal, so long as she stays in the coffin. Escaping their cage, the twins free Mallory and meet a strange creature, called a Knocker, who tells them the way out by listening to the stones. They next see a huge metal tree, made by the dwarves, which is called the Ironwood Tree. After a narrow escape from the dwarves' mechanical dogs, they make their way out of the tunnel but have to hide before leaving. They secretly watch Mulgarath, a hideous ogre who wants to rule the world, callously order the death of the dwarves for having been tricked into not getting the Field Guide from Jared. The dwarves are mauled to death by the goblins and Mulgarath reveals that he had the guide the whole time. The siblings escape just after Mulgarath disappears into the rock.

[edit] The Wrath of Mulgarath

The Wrath of Mulgarath was published on September 7, 2004. The Grace children return from the quarry to the Spiderwick estate, only to find the house in ruins and their mother gone. Hogsqueal the hobgoblin informs them that the house was destroyed by the goblins who have kidnapped their mother and taken her to the palace of their fearsome master, Mulgarath the ogre. Accompanied by Hogsqueal, the siblings journey to Mulgarath's palace, an immense citadel made of garbage where they battle a legion of goblins. Mallory runs the leader through with her sword and is greatly traumatised by having actually killed a living sentient being. Nevertheless she and her brothers defeat the goblins and discover Mulgarath's plan. The ogre has learned from the Field Guide that fresh cows' milk makes young dragons rapidly mature. He has stolen a number of cows and is using them to breed an army of dragons with which he plans to conquer the world. Byron, the griffin, successfully vanquishes the mother dragon and Simon kills the young ones. Infiltrating the palace, they find their mother and father tied up. They release their father, but discover that he is actually Mulgarath in disguise. Jared has Thimbletack wrap chains around Simon and Mallory. The ogre brags of his plan and reveals that the Field Guide is underneath his throne, and Jared mockingly tells Mulgarath that he and his siblings have killed all the dragons. In a rage, Mulgarath flings Simon and Mallory out of the window but Thimbletack's chains hold, and they don't fall far. Jared stabs Mulgarath in the foot with Mallory's sword, then knocks him out of the window. Mulgarath falls, transforms into a swallow and is eaten by Hogsqueal.

The children return home, where they meet Arthur Spiderwick, who had been living with the elves and so had not aged. He and his daughter Lucinda, now an old woman, share a poignant goodbye, and he turns to dust. With Mulgarath defeated, the Grace family is presumably now free to live happily ever after

[edit] Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

[edit] The Nixie's Song

This story takes place in Florida, where 11-year-old Nick Vargas lives with his brother, Jules, weird stepsister, Laurie, dad, Paul, and stepmom, Charlene, in his father's housing development. Laurie has read the Spiderwick Chronicles and believes in faeries. Nick thinks she is "lame" and wishes she would leave him alone. After finding a four-leafed clover (which allow people to see faeries) he sees a strange creature (later revealed to be a nixie) unconscious in his yard which he and Laurie carry into a nearby lake. The next day, the nixie, Taloa, gives Nick and Laurie the sight and sends them to find her six sisters who were separated when their pond was destroyed. Later they find the fireblasted pond and there are attacked by a giant creature they mistook for a hill. They escape the giant when it is lured by Taloa's singing and becomes calm. They decide to ask the authors of the Chronicles for advice at a book signing and convince Jules to drive them. Once there, they are disappointed when the adults don't believe them and run into Jared and Simon Grace who decide to help them. Jared tells them about a giant expert who lived nearby and they plan to meet at his address. The place appears to be deserted and the kids take several papers including a diagram of a giant trap. While the giant is hypnotized by the nixie's song, the three kids tie the giant up. It thrashes around, strangling itself with the cords, and the kids are horrified at what they've done. Then an old man walks up and tells them that the giant isn't really dead and kills it with a machete. He also explains that he is a giant hunter and this is only the first of many giants to wake up and unless they help him, all of Florida will be destroyed.

[edit] A Giant Problem

Nick and Laurie are taking giant hunting lessons from Noseeum Jack, which Nick finds pointless. Later Jack shows up at their house when their parents are fighting and takes them to see a fight between two giants. He approaches one injured giant and is swatted away and hurts his leg. The kids help him to his house and, once home, Laurie gives Jules a keychain containing the four-leafed clover. The next day they find a message from Taloa, who has gone to find her sisters on her own, and capture a small hobgoblin, who Laurie calls Sandspur. Later two giants start fighting outside their house. They escape with Jules, who can see the giants, but most of the development is destroyed. They go to Jack's for help, but Jack is going to live with his son and can't help them. That night, the family stays at a hotel where they try to come up with a plan and Jules shows Sandspur to his girlfriend, Cindy. Nick has an idea and the kids sneak out to the beach. They try to convince some mermaids to sing and lure the giants into the sea, but the mermaids hate the land and they kidnap Jules, promising to let him go if the kids bring them a fish that has never been in their sea. So they steal a tropical fish from Cindy's dad's aquarium and race back to the beach. The mermaids are amazed that they completed the task and return Jules. Nick records them on Laurie's voice recorder while they sing. Next they sneak back into the hotel and get Nick's remote control boat and then drive around a route provided by Sandspur of where the giants are, playing the mermaids' song. The giants follow the sound to the sea where Jules has to stop at a bridge. Nick gets out drops the little boat (with the tape recorder) into the ocean. The giants follow it out to sea and the kids go back to the hotel where they find the Grace kids waiting for them with the news that the giants, which they've gotten rid of, were there to kill something even worse. (Presumably a hydra.)

[edit] The Wyrm King

Due out on September 8, 2009.

[edit] Accompanying books

• Arthur Spiderwick's Notebook for Fantastical Observations, June 2005
• Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, November 2005
• The Spiderwick Chronicles: Care and Feeding of Sprites, December 26, 2006
• The Chronicles of Spiderwick: A Grand Tour of the Enchanted World, Navigated by Thimbletack, November 13, 2007

[edit] Characters

[edit] Humans

The Spiderwick Chronicles

• Jared Grace – The main character, from whose point of view the books are written. Simon is his identical twin, although they have contrasting personalities. Jared is a brave and resourceful natural leader, good at creating plans. He is mature for his age, but occasionally mischieveous, though his intentions are usually good. Jared also has some anger management issues.
• Simon Grace – Jared's identical twin brother. He is calm and caring and apparently a pacifist; he particularly loves animals, and has many pets, being able to pet Byron the griffin.
• Mallory Grace – Jared and Simon's older sister. She is an avid fencer who takes part in many fencing competitions; this skill comes in handy when defending herself against faeries. Although she can be grumpy, she also helps her brothers in their various adventures.
• Lucinda Spiderwick – The daughter of Arthur Spiderwick and the cousin of Helen Grace's mother, making her the Grace children's great aunt. She was attacked by faeries and subsequently put in a clinic for the insane. She can only eat faerie food because of a cruel joke played on her by fairies, however, a few friendly sprites provide her with food.
• Arthur Spiderwick – The author of the field guide to faeries, who disappeared after trying to fool the elves.
• Helen Grace – The mother of Jared, Simon, and Mallory.
• Richard Grace – Helen Grace's ex-husband and the father of the Grace children.

Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

• Nicholas Vargas - The main character, who has "stopped bothering" since his mother died and doesn't get along well with anyone.
• Laurie Vargas - Nick's step sister, who believes fully in faeries, and first introduced Nick to the idea through a published copy of the field guide.
• Noseeum Jack - An old giant hunter and the son of a giant-expert friend of Arthur Spiderwick's. He had the Sight, but is now almost blind.
• Julian(Jules) Vargas - Nick's older "annoying brother", who spends all day surfing, stays out of his dad's way, and treats Nick like a kid.
• Paul Vargas - Nick and Jules' dad, owns a housing development and doesn't understand his kids.
• Charlene Vargas - Laurie's mom and stepmother of Nick and Jules, an "okay" person to Nick but he wishes she wasn't around all the time.
• Cindy - Jules' girlfriend who also likes surfing. She is friendly and helps the kids after Jules is kidnapped by the mermaids.

[edit] Faeries

In the Spiderwick universe, faeries are normally invisible to humans, who are generally not aware of their presence. However, some humans have the ability to see faeries, commonly called the 'Sight'. A small percentage of humans have this ability naturally; for example, the seventh son of a seventh son or a person with red hair. It can also be obtained by looking through a hole in a stone or possessing a four-leafed clover. In the series, the Grace children receive the 'sight' when Hogsqueal, a hobgoblin, spits in their eyes and the Vargas kids receive it when they are held under the water that a nixie had been soaking in. The species of faeries in the series include brownies, boggarts, goblins, sprites, and elves, among many others.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

• Mulgarath – An evil, shape-shifting ogre who wants to take over the world. Mulgarath dies in Book 5, eaten by Hogsqueal while taking the form of a swallow, making his army spread away and his spells broken.
• Hogsqueal – One of Mulgarath's goblins who is actually a hobgoblin; he is an anti-hero. Hogsqueal uses children's teeth as his own, claiming that he is the Tooth Faerie. He helps out the children, but usually to his own advantage; and never uses the children's names, instead using odd insults. In the end, his good intentions are well confirmed. Tony DiTerlizzi reveals in his blog that Hogsqueal's first name was Horace in an early draft of Spiderwick ^[1], and that Hogsqueal is his favourite character in the series.
• Thimbletack - The Spiderwick Estate's brownie, a faerie who guards the Spiderwick mansion but, if angered, can become a vengeful and nasty boggart. Later in the series he ends up stealing the Field Guide and hiding it, believing this will be for the better. However, at the end of the books he is ultimately friendly.
• River Troll – A troll who appears in The Seeing Stone. He lives underneath local bridges. Jared makes a deal with the Troll so he won't eat them: let them cross and the 'tasty' goblins will follow.
• The Korting – The ruler of the dwarves. In The Ironwood Tree, he tricks Jared and Simon into being held prisoner. It seems that he was good but was deceived into being evil by Mulgarath.
• Dragons - Their shape is similar to that of a snakes, and they are as fast as a whip. with poisonous teeth, their baby's are commonly known as salamanders.
• Goblins - mischievous and grubby, goblins love smoke, fire, metal, and a good bloodshed. Most species are born without teeth, so they make their own from such materials as glass shards, pieces of metal (not iron) and wood. Sometimes they use the teeth of other animals.
• Elves - Living for almost all eternity, elves are proud and strong. commonly dresses in leaf-like robes and flowery head dresses, elves are respectful to nature. Their queen, seen by Jared, Malory and Simon, is dazzling and wears a determined expression.
• Phooka - Pookas are tricksters and resemble a cross between a monkey and a cat. It talks in riddles, so be careful.
• Stray Sod - mistaken for grass, beware, as they can lead a person astray. to counter the effects, turn your jumper inside out.
• Dwarfs - small and respectful, they are obedient workers, and live in darkness their whole lives. wearing delicate jewelry, they are grubby, and some say that they aren't born, they are carved from the stone walls.
• Knockers - helpful and cautious, the knocker talks without breath, and knocks on the sides of the walls with his knuckles, to check for a collapse.
• Byron - the pet of Simon, Byron is a cross of a bird and a lion, commonly known as a griffin. Swift and sharp eyed, Byron helped Jared, Simon and Mallory escape from Mulgarath.

Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

• Taloa - A nixie rescued by Nick (reluctantly) and Laurie after her pond was destroyed by a fire-breathing giant. Gives them the Sight and demands that they find her lost sisters.
• Sandspur - A hobgoblin that Laurie befriends and decides to keep. He is mischievous and greedy.
• Giants - Hill giants are large humanoid faeries that can disguise themselves as small hill's and mountains. They are commonly attracted by the singing of Nixies or Mermaids.
• Mermaids - Stubborn, yet loyal and true to their word, Mermaids have amazing voices, that can hypnotise any man. Not easy to strike a deal with, as they frequently want something in return, and usually take people as hostages to ensure the deal is kept.
• Manticores - Briefly seen by Nick on the motorway, the manticore was finishing of some road kill. Cougar-like in appearance, manticores are commonly mistaken for tigers with the head of a man.
• Dragonfly-faeries - After receiving the sight from Taloa, Nick saw these small dragonfly-like creatures while riding on his bike.
• Will-o'-the-wisps - similarly to Stray Sod, will-o'-the-wisps are also misleading, and can mislead their victim until the person is lost.
• The wyrm king - little is known about the wrym king (hydra), only that it is muli-headed, has gills, and that giants loath it (likely that it would kill them or their food source.)

[edit] Writing

DiTerlizzi stated that, due to the collaborative effort he and Black put into the books, there is no individual credit as to who did the writing and who did the illustrations.^[2] However, Tony was responsible for the illustrations and helped with plot forming, and wrote some sections, but ultimately Holly was the writer and he the illustrator.

[edit] Film adaptation

A feature film adaptation of the series was released by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies on February 14, 2008. Directed by Mark Waters, it starred Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Martin Short, Nick Nolte, and Seth Rogen. It followed the basic overall plot of the five novels in the Spiderwick Chronicles series, but left out the majority of the plot from the fourth book and contained several other minor differences.

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. With the opening day's gross on Thursday included, it grossed an estimated $21.3 million on its opening weekend.^[3]

[edit] Trivia and Goofs

• In the film's special features, Tony DiTerlizzi explains the origins of the faery names. Thimbletack got his name because he is helpful as a thimble, but can be "sharper" as a tack (in brownie and boggart forms). Hogsqueal gets his name from being hog-like, and because although he is friend, he can squeal on the kids.
• In the first book, Jared doesn't know he had relatives named "Spiderwick" that lived in the Estate, however in many illustrations it is shown that the gates to the house have big letters saying "Spiderwick".
• The scene in the fifth book, when Arthur is revealed riding on Byron with the fate of turning to dust the moment he steps on land is perhaps a reference to the myth of the Irish hero Oisín, who also turned to dust when he fell from his horse, after spending hundreds of years on Fairyland.
• In the fourth book, the authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black are shown in two illustrations as Easter eggs: once as watching the fencing competition and again as faces drawn in platic plates.
• Arthur Spiderwick is named after Arthur Rackham, of whom DiTerlizzi is a fan, and to whom he dedicates the books. Holly Black dedicates the books to her grandmother Melvina, which is also the name of the children's grandmother (Spiderwick's niece).
• The fact that the sprites "trap" Lucinda to their world by giving her faery food is perhaps a reference to the myth of Persephone, a goddess who got trapped in the Underworld by eating some of its food.
• The school that the children attend to for most of the series is called "J. Waterhouse", a reference to John William Waterhouse, who painted pictures of mythological episodes.
• Tony DiTerlizzi stated in the Spiderwick blog [1] that the appearing of the Phooka on a tree is a reference to the Cheshire Cat.
• The battle of the griffin against the dragon is a reference to the common theme of birds (symbols of good, fire, the Sun) against reptiles (symbols of evil, death, the underworld).
• In the second book, Thimbletack is able to shapeshift in order to escape Jared, however this ability isn't remembered by any of the characters in subsequent books.
• In the fourth book, the dwarves imprison Mallory in a coffin which prevents from aging, a reference to Snow White.
• The fact that Byron the griffin is kept in a horse stable is perhaps an ironic joke on the belief that griffins were the fiercest enemies of horses.

[edit] Video game

Sierra Entertainment enlisted Stormfront Studios to develop and produce a video game adaptation of the Spiderwick Chronicles.^[4] It was released, shortly before the film's premiere, on February 5, 2008 for Nintendo DS, Wii, PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 2, and is rated Everyone (E10+) by the ESRB.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website

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