The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 2 – The Seeing Stone | Book Review

Children’s books are one of the favourite genres for us here at Thinkerviews. We are always looking for books filled with adventure, enterprise and magic that makes childhood such a fascinating phase of life. We have reviewed a fair few series designed for young readers and shared our reviews on those here at Thinkerviews platforms.

• The Brightstorm Series by Vashti Hardy
• Friday Barnes Book Series by R.A. Spratt
• The Pandava series featuring Aru Shah by Roshani Chokshi

We added the Spiderwick Chronicles series to our reading list a while ago. Created by authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, these books have captured the readers with its tales of fairy land creatures inhabiting a derelict estate and the trio of children who go looking for them.

First published in 2003, the series has grown over time and been loved by readers old and young, inspiring a TV adaptation by the same name that’s hit the screens lately. We have shared our reviews on the previous books of the series here:

• The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1 – The Field Guide

So let’s continue through the series with this review for the second book called The Seeing Stone.

Book Cover:

Let us take a look at the cover page of this book.

We found the lovely hard back copies of the series. The coverpage of this second book in this series shows one of the twins – Jared – trying on a contraption with the seeing stone, while a faerie creature rides on his book. Being part of the continuation of cover pages, the readers will be easily able to identify the child as well as the magical elements of the story.

The fonts used on the coverpage will remind of classical wrought iron casting work and ancient tapestries. The authors’ names are inscribed on the bottom half of page…

Inside, this edition is filled with beautiful illustrations, almost on every page, making it very attractive for young readers.

A classic cover page that would be more appealing to the fans of the series looking for a collector’s edition.

Storyline:

To recap the previous adventures, we met the Grace children – nine year old twin brothers Simon and Jared and their thirteen year old sister Mallory – as they began a new life at the Spiderwick estate.

They discovered a guidebook about the invisible world around them called  Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. This handwritten, lovingly drawn book contains the knowledge about faeries and the Grace children are keeping it in spite of the warnings to not do so.

It is end of the day and Jared is coming home from school after another day when he got into trouble at school. He sees his twin Simon feeling dejected as his cat Tibbs has gone missing and his sister Mallory going to practice more fencing. Jared decides to go up to the attic and spend some time with the field guide.

But soon, Simon is acting strangely and being dragged off the estate. Jared forces Thimbletack to give him a seeing stone – an apparatus containing a stone with a hole in the middle. With this attached to his eyes, he can see that goblins have attacked Simon. He tries to fight them off with Mallory’s help, but the goblins run away.

Mallory and Jared go looking for Simon, but instead find a troll lurking under the bridge in a river. Escaping it, they finally track the goblins down, to find Simon in a cage along with other prisoners, including a funny creature called Hogsqueal and an injured Griffin.

Why are the Goblins attacking the Spiderwick estate and will the Grace children escape this time?

Views and Reviews:

This second book in the Spiderwick Chronicles captures another delightful adventure for the children who are learning to find the magical creatures populating our world. They survived finding the Field Guide and now they are learning to fit in with the new routine, new school and new house.

This book, however, is very much focused on them finding the sight to see the faerie creatures.

Starting in the evening with the attack of the Goblins, the children encounter sprites, trolls, hobgoblins, etc. in a few hours and also an injured Griffin that they bring home. It is very much a reaction on Jared and Mallory’s part when Simon is kidnapped as they jump after him to get him back.

The author introduces us to the enemy troops, i.e., goblins, the foul creatures singing:

Fidirat, Fidirat!

Catch a dog, catch a cat

Skin it raw, skin the fat

On the spit, turn like that

Fidirat, Fidirat!

And the beautiful Sprites:

Tiny green and brown creatures were perched on a branch. Their wings resembled leaves, but their faces seemed almost human. Instead of hair, grass and flower buds grew from their tiny heads.

The children learn about the multiple ways in which they can see the faeries. There is the seeing stone, but also the spit of the hobgoblins. In terms of characters, we meet Hogsqueal who speaks in rhyming slang and will show up again in the series. But, more importantly, the children learn to work as a team together to help one another and survive the supernatural attackers:

Mallory was still damp from her fall into the stream, and Simon’s clothes were scratched nearly to tatters. Jared had grass stains on his pants and scraped elbows from his chase through the woods. But they still had the book and the eyepiece, and Simon was carrying a kitten the color of butterscotch toffee, and all of them were still alive. From where Jared stood, those things counted as huge successes.

As mentioned in the reviews for this series, these stories have also been turned into a delightful TV adaptation and are available to stream on: The Roku Channel.

Summary:

An enjoyable segment in the series of adventures featuring three adorable children as they learn about the magical world around their new home and the tricks to survive it…

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7.5 stars out of 10.

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Over To You:

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