The Nixie's Song (Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1)

This book was definatly one of my fovorites. It tells about a boy who's dad just got remarried, and has a new stepsister. The stepsister is into spiderwick chronicles. It's a wonderful story, and I definatly recomend it for children 8-12. They find a nixie, and fight a giant! It was an amazing book, I have to tell you. I can't wait until the next book comes out. Holly Black and Toni Diterlizzi (?) are a great team when they pair up. I have to say this is one of my favorites. Well, I guess some people wouldn't like it, but i'm a faerie freak all the same.It turns out, Jared and Simon Grace are real.and thats realy cool. This story is based on a fans point of view. Definatly buy it the next time yoy see it.

Maybe it was the new setting (or the fact that it's 160 pages are actually worth the cost), but I liked this book better than the original Spiderwick series. It's much more substantial than its predecessors, and while the book-as-chapter layout of the first series is still evident, the authors seem to have figured out how to spin a decent story and wrap it up nicely without losing the feeling that this is just the beginning. Once again, the major parental figure (in this case, Nick's dad) comes off as harsher than necessary, though the other new characters are interesting and easy to identify with. Laurie at first comes off as Luna Lovegood-esque, a little flighty and completely comfortable with being regarded as a weirdo, until she reveals a penchant for seat-of-her-pants storytelling and charming people to believe anything she says. Nick, on the other hand, is just trying to continue "not bothering anyone", as he has been doing since his mother's death, and is more than a little put out with his new stepsister and her crazy faerie obsessions. The new setting (as any other Florida natives can probably imagine) promises a whole new menagerie of even more exotic and fascinating creatures than the original series. I'm just waiting for a Skunk Ape to come lumbering out of the swamp! Not only that, but there seems to be ecological and moral dilemmas in store. Though there are a few curse words, they're not the most objectionable ones out there, and I would still recommend this book to the 8-12 set.

My son was very excited to get this book. OK, I'll admit it, I like this book and the previous series, too. We're looking forward to the movie coming out in 2008.

I listened to The Nixie's Song by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black read by Andrew McCarthy of Pretty in Pink fame. Very good, I'd recommend it to anyone of any age. Short and sweet with creepy ominous undertones. And of course, Mr. Diterlizzi's incredible drawings are alone worth picking up this book for yourself or a small person you might know. My daughter read it through twice the night we bought it when we went to see the authors. I don't know how many times she has read it since then. This book with it's Lorax-like theme meant even more to us since our house is in the middle of 6 acres of Florida scrub pine. We used to have 300 acres of wetlands and undeveloped scrub next to us but it was bulldozed for golf courses and townhouses. All the gopher tortoises, barred owls, and I'm not sure what else have been pushed into the only wooded area left, our yard. This book makes me wonder what else might have moved in. Maybe the dogs aren't just barking at raccoons in the middle of the night;)

Over the course of a few months, the Grace family - twins Simon and Jared, and their older sister, Mallory - spent much of their time discovering creatures of a netherworld, after they moved into a dilapidated old house that had been in their family for years. Given the sight when they were lucky enough to meet a goblin who spit in their eyes, the three children worked side-by-side day and night, researching mythical creatures in their relative - Arthur Spiderwick's - notes and field guides. It was by doing this that the children were able to locate their missing father, and bring their family back together. Since then, their adventures have been limited. However, they did appear in a series of books known as THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, which have quickly gained popularity among the masses, looking to believe in something out-of-this-world. Which is how, with the assistance of Arthur Spiderwick's Field, a new generation of believers have entered the picture. Nicholas "Nick" Vargas is devastated when his father marries Charlene, quickly moving her and her completely off-the-wall daughter, Laurie into their sunny Florida home in Mangrove Hollow. Suddenly, Nick feels more displaced than he ever thought imaginable. Quickly relegated to give up the privacy of his own bedroom, and share the same living space with his older brother Julian "Jules" who does nothing but listen to his iPod, read surfing magazines, and talk about surfing on the phone with his girlfriend, Cindy. Nick is shocked by how quickly his life has been flipped upside down. Each and every box Laurie moves into her new "room," is labeled unicorns, fairies, or books about unicorns and/or fairies. And, to make matters worse, she carries around something titled Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide everywhere she goes. Nick knows that there's no such thing as mermaids, or other mythical creatures. To him, they're all part of a fairytale world that exists only in books. But everything changes for him when he discovers a four-leaf clover. Suddenly, he's able to see things that aren't there for others, even Laurie; and he's convinced that maybe, just maybe, Laurie isn't as whacked out as he originally thought. When Laurie has the chance to develop the Sight, as well; and the two meet a nixie who needs their help, they know that they have to assist her, or risk being tortured forever. But with a giant on the loose, helping one little nixie is proving to be quite a bit harder than they originally thought, and they begin to wonder if they'll be able to muster up the same courage as the Grace children, and accept their newfound duty. I fell in love with Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES back when they were first released, and was disheartened when the series came to an end. So you can imagine the surprise and joy I was overcome with when I learned of the release of THE NIXIE'S SONG. Laurie and Nick are wonderful new characters who, while not the Grace children, are just as inte