Synopsis
Book 3 of 5 in the Spiderwick Chronicles. As if being attacked by goblins and a bridge troll weren’t enough, Jared is now being targeted by Thimbletack. Simon is keeping an injured and very hungry griffin hidden in the carriage house. And Mallory is convinced the only way to get things back to normal is to get rid of the Guide. But that doesn’t seem to be an option. With more creatures from Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You popping up, the Guide seems to be the only protection the Grace kids have. But why do the faeries want it so badly? There’s only one person to go to for answers—their fragile and confused Aunt Lucinda.- ★★★☆☆
- ★★★☆☆
- ★★★★☆
- ★★★★☆
- Aunt Lucinda takes one bite of Faerie food and is addicted for the remainder of her life. Normal food no longer tastes good to her. Though faerie food doesn’t exist in the real world, we do have substances which can become addictive. Some of them are haram. Discuss these with your child.
- How is a human able to create a Field Guide with detailed information about Faerie folk, even though the Faeries themselves are unable to, despite their magical powers? Through observation, reflection, writing (note taking), forming hypotheses, testing and experimentation. These are all tools we can use to learn about any of Allah’s ﷻ creations. In fact, in the Quran, Allah ﷻ asks us multiple times to observe and reflect on His creation.
- Everyone wants the Field Guide: the children, the elves, the goblins, and the ogre. The goblins want to use the knowledge to benefit themselves at the cost of other living things. The elves want to keep the information out of the hands of humans who may use the information to cut forests and trap the faeries for profit. Knowledge and information can always be used to benefit or harm other living things. How can knowledge be used to benefit others? Harm others?
- Jared tricks the elves into promising to release him. Even though it’s against their interests, the elves let Jared go. As a Muslim, should we always keep our promises? What if keeping a promise means losing something we want?
- Jared has had trouble controlling his anger ever since his father left the family. He gets into trouble at school and loses his temper with Thimbletack (who retaliates with harmful pranks). What happens when we lose our temper? Speaking or acting out of anger can hurt people’s feelings and harm relationships with those who are close to us.
- What does the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ teach us about controlling our anger? The Prophet ﷺ has given us advice on how to control our anger.
- Turn to Allah ﷻ for help
- Seek refuge in Allah ﷻ from Shaytan
- Stay silent
- Do wudu
- Change your posture: sit down or lie down
Mindful Muslim Review
A fantasy series with a masterful attention to detail, incredible pen and ink drawings, highly skilled at blending the real world with the fantastical and pulling you in.
Mindful Muslim Reader recommends Books 1-5 in this series.
Teaching Tools
Ages: 7-10
Series: The Spiderwick Chronicles
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
*This review applies only to ISBN number noted above.
