THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES: BOOKS 1-5
(THE FIELD GUIDE, THE SEEING STONE, LUCINDA'S SECRET, THE IRONWOOD TREE, THE WRATH OF MULGARATH)
By HOLLY BLACK and TONY DITERLIZZI
(Read by Mark Hamill)

Listening Library/Random House, 2005
ISBN: 9780307246356
5 CD Audio Book
GENRE(S): Fiction, Children's, Fantasy, Audio Book

Reviewed by Yennie Cheung

The Spiderwick Chronicles center around Jared Grace, a nine year old boy who has just moved to a small town from New York City with his mother, twin brother Simon, and older sister Mallory. The Field Guide opens with the family moving into the decaying house of their great-aunt Lucinda, who has been moved to a home for the mentally ill. Immediately after their arrival, the children begin to realize that their new house is highly unusual. They hear strange sounds, as if something were scurrying within the walls; a seemingly doorless library is discovered when Jared rides a dumbwaiter; and, most tellingly, Mallory wakes one morning to find her hair tied to her bedstead.

The oddities all come together when Jared uncovers a book written by Aunt Lucinda's father: Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Reading the book plunges the three children into the otherwise unseen world of fairies. However, few of these beings are interested in making friends with the children. In fact, the rediscovery of the long-lost field guide puts the children in all sorts of mortal danger as an ogre named Mulgarath attempts to steal the book and use its information to control all of the world's fantastical creatures.

Each of the five books is short enough to fit conveniently onto one CD per volume, making the collection perfectly sized for Spiderwick's lower elementary school audience. Older audiences might be frustrated with the books' brevity—nothing seems to last long or feel particularly special, and the fairies aren't even seen until the very end of the first book. However, when taking the series as one whole—as this collection does—the story is much stronger, more cohesive, and definitely more satisfying.

Actor Mark Hamill fares better than many other celebrity audio book readers—though perhaps he has an edge, having found a successful post-Star Wars career in voice acting (including his stellar take on the Joker in the 1990's Batman cartoons). As the Grace children become exposed to various magical creatures, Hamill incorporates more character voices, making each fairy, goblin, or troll's voice appropriately calming or malicious. Most entertaining perhaps is Hogsqueal, a hobgoblin whom Jared saves. A rather goofy character, Hogsqueal has a soft spot for cute critters and sounds a bit similar to Fozzie on The Muppet Show—or perhaps Yoda without the choppy sentence structure. Either way, Hogsqueal is a riot, and Hamill brings him to life perfectly.

Despite Hamill's reading, listening to these audio books alone does the series a great injustice. After all, what makes The Spiderwick Chronicles a special read is Tony DiTerlizzi's illustrations. Best known for his artwork for the card game Magic: The Gathering, DiTerlizzi peppers the text with so many black and white drawings that the books come with a separate table of contents specifically for the full-page drawings.

Luckily, audiences don't have to choose between only reading and only listening: One can easily listen while reading the books. That way, DiTerlizzi's artwork and Hamill's character voices can provide even more vivid mental images to accompany Holly Black's fantastical storyline.

(July, 2007)