Notebook for Fantastical Observations (Spiderwick Chronicles Series) by Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi, Tony DiTerlizzi (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Can't get enough of the faerie world? Well, Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, the brave souls that helped Mallory, Simon, and Jared Grace bring their amazing adventures to a worldwide audience, are here to help you find yours!

Presenting The Spiderwick Chronicles Notebook for Fantastical Observations. This handy interactive storybook features seventeen mini-adventures collected from faerie watchers around the globe as well as plenty of pages for readers to add their own stories, maps, charts, notes, lists, diagrams, and drawings. So get ready to embark on your own faerie adventure -- all you need is an observant eye and an open mind. Just keep your wits about you. After all... their world is closer than you think....

Publishers Weekly

A trio of titles acts as guides to deepen the impact of popular series. The Spiderwick Notebook for Fantastic Observations by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black comes in an embossed paper-over-board package that emulates well-worn leatherbound scientific notebooks. Along with descriptions of the offbeat characters that people the Spiderwick Chronicles (Brownies, Dragons, Griffins, etc.) are plenty of lined pages with occasional prompts to help budding observers of fantastical phenomenon record their findings. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Julia Beiker - Children's Literature

Mallory, Simon, and Jared Grace enter a magical world that feeds into any young reader's fantasy. Many twists and turns add suspension for any adventure-seeking youth. Now these individuals can create their own supernatural journey into the world of faeries through the book. Diterlizzi and Black create simple, miniature adventure stories that include dragons, brownies, hobgoblins, goblins, and other mystical creatures. The three-to-four page tales lead right into pages of journal writing that allow the reader to chronicle their own testimonies to these stories. They get to use graphic organizers in a fun and exciting way that organizes them as they write down their ideas. Later, they can go back and review what they put down and add even more to their thoughts. The creators designed places where a budding artist can incorporate drawings into this world of the imagination. Without reading the adventures of the Grace children, the book offers little to its audience. The readers need prior knowledge and background to understand what they could invest in this story to profit the most. Short glimpses of the creatures give no understanding as to how to view them, whereas reading about them through the eyes of the Grace children give the creatures more dimension and make them less fearful or strange. The concept of using literary practices to engage young readers into a higher level of thinking and understanding is awesome. How ingenious to use list-making, the short essay, and actual drawings to help readers go beyond the normal grasp of what lies outside our world. 2005, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 10 to 14.

Product Details

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

"To protect the house and those inside

is my duty, Guide or no Guide."

From Book 5: The Wrath of Mulgarath

I admit I'm a slob. I throw my socks and underwear on the floor. I kick the covers off my bed and sleep on the bare mattress. My hair sticks up from my head like a bunch of crabgrass. I never clean up any of my toys. If something gets broken because I stepped on it, then I just try to avoid that area. Sometimes I forget, but usually there are enough clothes on top that the broken toy parts don't hurt my feet that bad. But no matter how messy I am, there is always someone messier than me.

My parents don't understand how I got to be this way. My room used to be neat, my hair combed and my clothes folded. That was when Skifflewhim was my friend. He's really little, with big hairy ears and pants made from an old leather glove. He would hop around, making my clothes dance themselves into the drawers. My hair would part and braid itself out before I even woke up, so I wouldn't notice if he worked on the tangles. My dolls would march right onto the shelves.

And all I had to do was leave out some scraps from dinner.

Skifflewhim liked everything I didn't. He would eat my brussels sprouts, my beets, and the liver my mom would fry with onions. I guess it was because he ate all that stuff that I started to wonder what he wouldn't eat. I left out a raw onion and he ate it. I left out a bunch of worms I dug up out of the yard and he ate those too. Finally, I thought of the most disgusting thing I could: kitty litter.

When I came back from school, my bed was unmade and the litter wasthrown all over my room. Some of it was even in my sheets. Since then, I haven't seen Skifflewhim once, even when I left out a drumstick with only one bite taken out of it. But although I don't see him, I know he's there. Books sometimes just fall off the shelves. Lightbulbs burn out extra fast. My clothes are ripped and my homework goes missing.

So, you see, I have the be as messy as possible. That way hhe can't make it any worse. Until I figure out a better idea, that's what I'm going to do.

-- Kelly L.

Analysis: Brownies are known to be helpful, but if angered they can turn into troublesome boggarts. This appears to be a case of such a transformation.

-- H. B. & T. D.

I imagine this creature helping me with chores around my house:

Helps with:

How often:

In return, I give it:

Is it dependable?

Here's what else I know about it:

Things I can't see, but I know are there...

Things I see, but I know aren't there...

Food I would leave for a house brownie...

Food I would not leave for a brownie...

A drawing of my room when it's a mess:

A drawing of my room after being cleaned by a brownie:

A floor plan of my house showing locations of possible brownie activity:

Copyright © 2005 by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black