The Nixie's Song: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1 - Holly Black
Spiderwick series continues with new characters.
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Book details
- Author:Holly Black
- # of pages: 162
- Publisher:Simon & Schuster
- Original Publication Date: 09/01/2007
- Genre: Fiction - Fantasy
- Hardcover: $10.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 7
- Read Aloud: 8
- Read Alone: 9
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that there's a bit of violence at the end, but otherwise this is pretty mild, milder than the original Spiderwick series, and not too scary or suspenseful.
Families can talk about the idea of an unseen world all around us. Do you think it's true? Can you find any evidence one way or the other? Do you wish it was true? Why or why not?
Families can talk about the idea of an unseen world all around us. Do you think it's true? Can you find any evidence one way or the other? Do you wish it was true? Why or why not?
Message
Social Behavior:
Main characters lie, and admire lying well.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Violence
A creature is killed by being strangled and stabbed through the eye.
Sex
Language
One use of "lard ass."
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Matt Berman
With his mother dead, Nick is none too happy when his father remarries and he has to give up his bedroom to his new stepsister, Laurie. He's even less happy to find that she's a weirdo who believes in the fairies and the unseen magical world she has read about in The Spiderwick Chronicles. But he's really unhappy to discover that she's right.
Is it any good?
This is the beginning of a new series spun off The Spiderwick Chronicles. The characters are new, the setting changed to Florida, but the concept is the same: we are surrounded by an unseen, mostly malevolent, world of magical creatures, and certain magical items (here a four-leaf clover and the water a nixie has swum in) can give one the Sight to see it.
While it doesn't have the freshness and exciting suspense of the original series, and Nick and Laurie are rather unlikable protagonists, it does have one bit that long-time fans will enjoy: an appearance in the story by the author, illustrator, and the twins on whom the series is supposedly based. Nick and Laurie go to see them at a book signing, hoping for some advice in dealing with a problem with a giant, and are vastly disappointed. The author has fun razzing herself and her partner, and it provides a little metafiction interlude that jazzes the proceedings up for a while. But in the next book the basic story will have to pick up considerably, and Nick and Laurie will have to become a whole lot more appealing, to hold onto fans of the original series.
Other choices
Other Spiderwick Novels:
The Field Guide: The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1
The Seeing Stone
Lucinda's Secret
The Ironweed Tree
The Wrath of Mulgarath
Books with Similar Themes:
No Flying in the House by Betty Brock
Midnight Magic by Amy Gordon
The Gold Dust Letters by Janet Taylor Lisle
The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
The Beasties by William Sleator
A Year and a Day by William Mayne
The Kingfisher's Gift by Susan Williams Beckhorn
The Various by Steve Augarde
Magic by the Lake by Edward Edward Eager
The Time Garden by Edward Eager
The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith
Related Web Sites:
Official Site
Illustrator's Site
Author's Site
Parents and kids say
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Which fantasy book creature has the best name?
Fluffy (3-headed dog, Harry Potter)
33%
Mister Grin (giant crocodile, Peter and the Starcatchers)
17%
Vermicious Knid (shapeshifting monster, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator)
0%
The Incredibly Deadly Viper (harmless snake, Series of Unfortunate Events)
8%
Bunnicula (vampire bunny, Bunnicula series)
42%
12 votes