Reading Level: Early Elementary

In the fifth and final installment of the Spiderwick Chronicles, the Grace children must battle Mulgarath’s goblin army to save their mother and reclaim the Field Guide. With the help of Thimbletack, Hogsqueal, and Byron, the Grace children attempt to sneak up on Mulgarath’s goblin army. Can the small group defeat a fierce army of goblins and Mulgarath? Are the children doomed to lose everything they hold dear?

All of the characters and creatures come together in a satisfying conclusion. The griffin, Thimbletack, and Hogsqueal unite to help the Grace children rescue their mother and defeat Mulgarath. Book five of the series is darker and has some potentially disturbing descriptions. Although the final battle ends with a satisfying surprise, reading descriptions of Mulgarath’s evil deeds may disturb younger readers. In an attempt to trick the children, Mulgarath shapeshifts to appear like their father. Jared is able to see through Mulgarath’s trick and, in the end, saves his family from Mulgarath’s wrath.

Like the previous books, the Grace Children work together and come to one another’s aid when needed. When Jared’s mother finally learns the truth about Jared’s strange behavior, there is a heartwarming apology. The ending doesn’t ignore the natural consequences of Jared’s bad behavior but ends with the hopeful possibility that life will be better. In the end, Aunt Lucinda moves in with the Grace family and there is peace between the children, Thimbletack, and the family cat. When the exciting series comes to an end, the readers will be left with a smile and characters that they will remember for a long time to come.

 Sexual Content

• None

Violence

• Mulgarath kidnaps the Grace children’s mother. When the children find her, she is in “one corner, bound, gagged, and unconscious.”
• Goblins attacked Thimbletack. The fight is not described, but Jared finds Thimbletack, who “had a long, raw scratch on his shoulder and that his hat was missing.” He also had a black eye.
• A griffin grabs a hobgoblin by the arm. “The griffin shook his head, whipping Hogsqueal back and forth.” Simon hit the griffin, “Hard on the beak with his hand,” hoping to get the griffin to let go of Hogsqueal.”
• Thimbletack threatens a hobgoblin saying, “No. We’ll set rats to nibble off your toes, poke out your eyes, and put them up your nose. Your fingers we’ll remove with dull scissors, and we’ll wait until your confidence withers.”
• Goblins attack the Grace children. The battle is described over three pages. During the fight, two goblins, “Grabbed hold of his (Jared’s) legs and toppled him into the dirt.” Mallory uses her swords to chase them away. One goblin “Jumped on her back, biting her shoulder.” The griffin appears and the children are able to escape.
• While Simon is riding the griffin, a dragon attacks. “The dragon twisted, teeth sinking into Byron’s feathered and furred body. . .” Simon falls off the griffin, injuring his arm. In order to distract the dragon, Simon, “who had never killed anything. . . stepped on the head of one of the baby dragons, crushing in into a smear under his shoe. It squealed. Dragon blood stained the ground and melted the edge of Simon’s heel.” The fight ends with Byron, “Plunging his beak into the creature’s neck, he rent it wide. The dragon went limp in Byron’s claws.” The action is described over seven pages.
• Mulgarath put fairies in honey. Simon tries to help, “but the honey was heavy and clung to their thick wings, tearing them. The sprites squealed as he set each one down on the table in a sticky, sodden heap. One was completely still and lay there limply, like a doll.”
• Mulgarath kicks Thimbletack. “The ogre kicked the brownie, his giant foot tossing Thimbletack across the room, where Thimbletack landed like a crumpled glove beside Mrs. Grace.”
• The story ends with an epic battle between the Grace children and Mulgarath, which is told over several chapters. At one point, Jared stabs Mulgarath in the foot with a sword. The battle ends with a funny surprise.

Drugs and Alcohol

• None

Language

• When Simon hits the griffin, his sister yells, “Oh Crap, don’t do that!”
• Hogsqueal calls the Grace names such as “beetle-guts”, “lump-meat,” and “chatter-basket.”
• Jared says, “I want Dad to be less of a jerk . . .”
• “Oh my god,” is used as an exclamation once.
• Mallory calls Jared an “idiot.”

Supernatural

• Goblins, Frey, griffins, and other creatures exist. These creatures have different magical abilities.
• Mulgarath is raising dragons. The dragons have “hundreds of teeth, thin as needles.” When a person touches a dragon, their skin burns.”
• Mulgarath is able to change shapes. In order to trick the children, he changes, making himself look like their father. “As Jared looked up into the familiar hazel eyes of his father, they started to turn pale yellow. His father’s body elongated, filling out, becoming a mammoth shape clad in the tattered remains of ancient finery. His hands became claws, and his dark hair twined together into branches.”
• The children meet their great-great-uncle Arthur Spiderwick, who the elves kept captive. Arthur meets his aged daughter. When Arthur goes to hug his daughter, his “foot touched the ground, his body turned to dust and then smoke.”

Spiritual Content

• None

The Grace children are surrounded by problems. Thimbletack wants revenge. A hungry griffin is hiding in the carriage house. Creatures will stop at nothing to get Arthur’s Field Guide. Giving up the Field Guide isn’t an option, so the children go to see their Aunt Lucinda. But the more they learn about the fantastical world around them, the more they are convinced that the only way to stay safe is to discover more about the creatures who want to silence them.

Lucinda’s Secret takes the reader into the past and begins to answer the question: Why do the fairies want the Field Guide? The third installment of The Spiderwick Chronicles has several scenes that may scare younger readers. The children go to visit their Aunt Lucinda in an asylum, and they see several patients in straight jackets and a man “in a bathrobe giggled over an upside-down book.” Lucinda’s story of monsters that attacked her at night may also frighten readers.

Readers will be able to relate to the realistic sibling relationships. Even though the children work together and care about each other, they still squabble, fight, and disagree. Because the siblings often have conflict, the scenes when they work together are even more enjoyable. The story shows how relationships are always changing and that people can love each other and still disagree.

The introduction of new characters and new creatures adds interest to Lucinda’s Secret. Book three focuses on advancing the plot and giving important background information. However, this book also has less action than the first two books and readers will miss Thimbletack and the griffin, who do not appear in the story. The introduction of elves and a glimpse into the elves’ world adds a new, interesting element. Readers will want to continue the series to find out how the elves and Lucinda’s secret are connected.

Sexual Content

• None

Violence

• When Aunt Lucinda was younger, monsters came looking for her father’s book. She shows the children her scars and says, “Late one night the monsters came. Little green things with horrible teeth held me down, while a giant one questioned me. I struggled, and their claws scraped my arms and legs . . . Before that night, my back was straight. Ever since, I have walked hunched over.”
• When Mallory touches a unicorn, she sees a vision of people hunting. As the unicorn runs, “arrows fly, burying themselves in white flesh. The unicorn bellows and goes down in a cloud of leaves. Dog teeth rip skin. A man with a knife hacks the horn from the head while the unicorn is still moving.”
• Elves capture Jared. With the wave of an elf hand, “dirty, hairy roots climbed Jared’s legs and held him.”

Drugs and Alcohol

• None

Language

• “Crappy” is used once. “Crap” is used three times.
• When Jared talks about his dad leaving to take a new job, Mallory says, “You can’t really believe that load of crap.”
• The Phooka tells the children he is “an ass or perhaps merely a sprite.”

Supernatural

• Sprites visit Aunt Lucinda. They are “creatures the size of walnuts, whirling in on iridescent wings. They alighted on the old woman, tangling in her white hair and crawling up the headboard.”
• Sprites gave Aunt Lucinda fruit, and when she ate it, “it tasted better than any food I’d ever imagined. . . After that, human food—normal food—was like sawdust and ashes. I couldn’t make myself eat it.” She now must rely on the sprites to feed her.
• The children learn that wearing their clothes inside out will allow them to find the elf world. The children meet the green-skinned elves.
• The children meet a Phooka, who speaks in riddles. The Phooka “had the body of a monkey with short, blackish brown speckled fur and a long tail that curled around the branch on which it sat.” The Phooka has a face that looks like a rabbit “with long ears and whiskers.”
• When Mallory touches a unicorn, she sees a vision.

Spiritual Content

• None

The mysterious field guide that their long-lost great-great-uncle Arthur Spiderwick wrote is wreaking havoc on the Grace children’s lives. In an attempt to get the book, goblins kidnap Simon and his cat.  It’s up to Jared and Mallory to track down the goblins, save Simon, and make it out of the woods alive. Can Jared and Mallory save Simon before it’s too late?

Full of suspense, The Seeing Stone is more intense than the first story in the series. At the beginning of the story, the goblins are invisible to the Grace children. The fact that invisible goblins are able to kidnap Simon, put him in a cage, and may possibly want to eat him may scare younger readers. Despite the danger, Jared and Mallory learn to work together as they search for their brother. They use creative problem-solving skills to rescue Simon.

In The Field Guide, Jared is angry and only concerned about himself, but in the second book, he shows growth and proves that he is more than a troublemaker. The children learn that they must trust and rely on each other in order to defeat the goblins. Readers will relate to the realistic siblings’ relationship and the children’s struggle to get along. Although the mother cares about her children, she clearly struggles in her new role as a single parent.

Even though the children realize danger still lurks outside their home, they choose to lie to their mother because they do not think she will believe that goblins, trolls, fairies, and other creatures exist. As the children learn more about the mythical world around them, they meet Hogsqueal, a hobgoblin, who has a hilarious vocabulary and proves that not every creature is evil. When readers finish The Seeing Stone, they will want to pick up the next book in the series. The fast-paced story will end all too quickly, so you will want to have Lucinda’s Secret waiting on the shelf.

Sexual Content

• None

Violence

• Goblins kidnap Simon and his cat; then the goblins attack Jared and Mallory. When a goblin grabs Jared by his shirt, “he went down on his stomach in the grass. . .” Mallory tries to help Jared and “he saw Mallory’s arm jerk and heard her cry out. Red lines appeared where nails scraped her.” Mallory is able to chase the goblins off when she hits them with her rapier. The attack scene takes place over six pages but is not told in gory detail.
• A troll tries to grab Mallory, but he is burned by sunlight and she is able to escape.
• The goblins attack a wounded griffin. When the goblins circle the griffin, “the animal couldn’t seem to raise itself very far off the ground, but it could snap at the goblins if they got too close. Then the creature’s hawk beak connected, scissoring off the goblin arm.” Simon and his siblings save the griffin.
• When the goblins chase after the children, they make a deal with the troll to lead the goblins to him. The troll hides in the river, and when the goblins enter, “the troll grabbed them all, shaking and biting and dragging them down to his watery lair.”

Drugs and Alcohol

• None

Language

• A hobgoblin calls Jared a host of creative names. A few names he uses include candy butt, dribble-puss, and jinglebrains.

Supernatural

• A brownie lives in the Grace house. When Jared grabs the brownie, “the little brownie squirmed in his grasp, abruptly changing shape into a lizard, a rat that bit Jared’s hand, then a slippery eel that flailed wetly.”
• The Grace children encounter goblins, who eat small creatures such as cats. The goblins “are born without teeth and so find substitutes, such as the fangs of animals, sharp rocks, and pieces of glass.”
• The Grace children put hobgoblin spit in their eyes so they will have “the Sight.”
• A hobgoblin uses children’s teeth instead of glass and other items. When Jared asks if he steals children’s teeth, the hobgoblin replies, “Come on, Dumbellina, tell me you don’t believe in the tooth fairy!”

Spiritual Content

• None