The Nixie's Song

The Nixie's Song
by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
MG fantasy. 162 pp.
Simon & Schuster. 2007.

I'm a fan of the Spiderwick Chronicles. I have fond memories of reading them on the subway from the Union Square Devil's Den to my apartment in Astoria. They read well, the story was good, and the illustrations were cute. This is also the first children's book-to-film adaptation that I'm actually inclined to see, because I think they can actually do this one right.

I was surprised this week while picking up Hale's new book to discover that there was a new Spiderwick series—Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. So I picked it up and brought it home.

It's actually a bit disappointing. The premise is that since the publication of the original Spiderwick series, kids are going around and having dealings with faeries. In theory, I think that's an interesting spin on the story. I'm almost for it. If each book in the series would take up a different story. But it's not going to be that way. This series will follow Nick Vargas and his new step-sister, Laurie. They have to find all the nixie's sisters and probably kill a bunch of giants in the process before the giants all wake up and burn Florida. I think a series with a number of random stories would have been far more interesting, but such is life.

What I found that I really disliked with this book was the self-referencing. I just have issues when the authors show up as characters in their own book. I realize that they do this to create a sense of Faeries Are Real and We're Merely Reporting These Incidents, but mostly it just chaps me.

Yes, I'll likely finish the series, because I do enjoy the writing. I hope the remaining books in this series pace themselves a bit quicker and better, though.