The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Seeing Stone

Authors: Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Copyright Date: 2003
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Number of Pages: 108
Reading Level: Ages 9 & Up
Genre: Fiction

Summary

Continuing in the series, Mallory, Simon and Jared discover much more about the world of faeries in this book. At the start of "The Seeing Stone", Jared comes home late from school because he had a detention, and upon his arrival Simon informs him that his cat is missing and asks if Jared will help him search. He says no, so Simon goes to look for the cat himself, while Mallory goes outside to practice her fencing. A little while later, Jared sees Simon being dragged away and runs to Mallory for help. They go to the secret library and Thimbletack, the brownie, is there and helps them find a stone (Jared grabs it from him) that allows them to see the faeries. He also informs them that Simon has been taken by goblins. Using the stone, they go into some woods by their house to try to find Simon. Through trial and great difficulty, they finally find Simon up in a cage, where there are also many other cages with different animals that the goblins had captures. Jared climbs up the tree and a hobgoblin who asks Jared to free him. He first gets Simon, then they go free the hobgoblin who also 'spits' in their eyes so they can permanently see the faeries.

When they start to try to escape, the other goblins see them so the hobgoblin distracts them so they can get away. They fight off the goblins by tricking them--they lead them to a stream where there's a troll inside of it, and the troll eats all of the goblins. They later go back to where the goblin camp was and save a griffin--they put it on a tarp and drag him back to their shed. The hobgoblin also gives Mallory the ability to "see" the faeries. They get home at 1am later that night, and their mom grounds them for a month because they were out so late. When Jared goes to his bedroom, he finds that his bed has been totally destroyed by Thimbletack because earlier he grabbed the seeing stone from him. You have to read the next book to see what happens next in their adventure!

Reaction

I loved this book just as much as the first one. The story is very involved and keeps you wondering what is going to happen next!

Recommendations

Just as with the first book, I would recommend this to anyone. It's such a fun book (and series...) and I think anyone would love it!

Problems/Conflicts

There really weren't too many problems in this book either, minus the fact that Jared gets in trouble and then the children have to fight off goblins.