Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: The Nixie's Song ; A Giant Problem ; The Wyrm King

Title: The Nixie's Song
Author: Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black ; Read by Andrew McCarthy
Publisher: Audioworks (Children's)
Series: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Bk 1 (continuation of the Spiderwick Chronicles)
ISBN: 9780743569156
Length: 100 min. ; 2 discs
Obtained: Library audiobook copy

Comments:


I'd definitely recommend reading the Spiderwick Chronicles before starting this continuation.  Nicholas is part of a newly blended family, and his step-sister Laurie is more than a little strange.  Among other things, she believes her fiction book, The Spiderwick Chronicles, is real.  Or at least Nicholas thinks that is what makes her weird until he finds a four leaf clover and starts to see all that weird stuff in reality.  I enjoyed this story just as I enjoyed the original Spiderwick books.

My only complaint is that Jared is nearly as great a character when you're seeing things from someone else's perspective.  Not that he was a bad guy.  Just not as good.  Of course, I'm quite sure that's intentional.

Oh, and of interesting note... the authors portray themselves in the book as adults that don't really believe everything they are selling to kids.  It was strange to see them as part of the story in the first place, but stranger yet that they remained true adults that believe all the faerie stuff is the imagination of kids at work.

Title: A Giant Problem
Author: Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black ; Read by Andrew McCarthy
Publisher: Audioworks (Children's)
Series: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Bk 2 (continuation of the Spiderwick Chronicles)
ISBN: 9780743574693
Length: 2 hrs ; 2 discs
Obtained: Library audiobook copy

Comments:

In the first book, Nicholas and Laurie meet the Nixie and work to stop the giants torturing her.  But now they realize the giants are a much BIGGER problem than they had realized.  How on Earth are they, just a couple kids, supposed to do something to save the world (or at least their part of Florida)?  This has one of those other foot dropping cliffhangers at the very end.  Speaking as someone who has had a wait before the third book, The Wyrm King, you want to have them all on hand.

Title: The Wyrm King
Author:  Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black ; Read by Andrew McCarthy
Publisher: Audioworks (Children's)
Series:  Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Bk 3 (continuation of the Spiderwick Chronicles)
ISBN: 9780743583107
Length: 2 hours ; 2 discs
Obtained:  ILL Library audiobook copy

Comments: 

Pretty much everybody is involved in this final book of the Spiderwick books.  Nick, his brother Julian, his step-sister Laurie, plus the Grace kids and someone else we met in A Giant Problem...all working together to fix past mistakes and stop the horrible destruction approaching.  The book is fast paced and I found it more action-less story than the proceeding books.  The only other point of note is that this is the last of the Spiderwick books.