Lucinda's Secret. Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black - Softcover

Tony DiTerlizzi; Holly Black

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857072439 ISBN 13: 9780857072436

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's, 2011

Synopsis

Book 3 in the hugely popular series, The Spiderwick Chronicles. Things at the Grace residence are getting completely out of hand. As if being attacked by vile, smelly goblins and almost eaten by a bridge troll wasn't enough, now the house boggart, Thimbletack, is out to get Jared. Simon has a very hungry griffon recuperating in the carriage house, and Mallory is convinced that the only way to stop the madness is to get rid of Arthur Spiderwick's Guide. But with all kinds of creatures after them, the Guide is the only protection the Grace kids have… If only they could work out why the faeries are stalking them Could it be the Guide that they want There's only one person who might know the answer ~ their crazy old Aunt Lucinda.

About this title

Review

The Grace kids--13-year-old Mallory and 9-year-old twins Jared and Simon--get to catch their breath in the third installment of the Spiderwick Chronicles, as they visit their "crazy old" Aunt Lucinda for some help in deciding the fate of the troublesome Field Guide

Fresh from near-fatal goblin and troll attacks in the previous book (The Seeing Stone, the children are torn over whether to hang onto their long-lost great-great-uncle's book or to turn it over to the menacing faeries. Thimbletack--the house brownie who's transmogrified into an angry "boggart"--has lost his patience with the kids, and he starts subjecting Jared to increasingly nasty pranks. Hoping that Lucinda might know something about Uncle Arthur's fate (or at least have some advice on how to fend off the faeries), the three children talk their mom into a trip to the asylum for a visit--but there they learn their situation might be even more dangerous than they imagined. (And, as readers of the series know, the kids already thought they were in hot water.)

Holly Black doesn't dish up the action quite as fast as she did in the first two books, but Spiderwick fans won't be disappointed: We learn more Spiderwick family history, we get an ominous glimpse of events to come, and Tony DiTerlizzi introduces a few new faeries to the menagerie in his ever-evocative pen and ink--including a special treat, the Cheshire-esque phooka. ("You've lost your uncle! How careless.") Ages 6 to 10) --Paul Hughes

About the Author

Holly Black spent her early years in a decaying Victorian mansion where her mother fed her a steady diet of ghost stories and faerie tales. An avid collector of rare folklore volumes, spooky dolls, and crazy hats, she lives in West Long Branch, New Jersey, with her husband, Theo. Together with illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, she is the creator of the bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles series of children's books. Tony DiTerlizzi is co-creator of the international bestselling series, The Spiderwick Chronicles. He has illustrated numerous picture books for children, including Ted, G is for 1 Gzonk and the critically acclaimed The Spider and the Fly, which won the Caldecott Honor. Tony lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife, Angela, and their baby daughter, Sophia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857072439
• ISBN 13: 9780857072436
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 109