Book Title: The Nixie’s Song: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

Author: Tony diTerlizzi and Holly Black

Genre: Children

Rating: 2.5 stars

“The Spiderwick Chronicles” leave the old-fashioned charm of New England far behind and head south for some fiendish faerie fun in the hot Florida sun. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas only thinks his life has been turned upside down after his developer father remarries and moves his new wife and daughter into the soon-to-be completed Mangrove Hollow. 

But an “expedition” to a nearby lake turns up a little nixie with a giant problem – the huge, lumbering, fire-breathing variety – and it’s up to Nick; his stepsister, Laurie; and his big brother, Julian (plus a familiar face from the original “Spiderwick Chronicles”) to figure out the best way to stop a host of rampaging giants before all of Florida goes up in smoke.

I almost pre-empted a review today to insert a post about reaching my goal to become an official Peloton Century Rider, but controlled the urge. Figured I could just make the mention and thank Alex Toussaint for his Pop Ride in making that happen. And then my back-up was a post about our family Thanksgiving celebration…however that took a severe detour when hubby had to take my step-son to the ER due to a rapidly progressing infection courtesy of a troublesome tooth. (He’s okay now having been placed on a different antibiotic and steroid.)

Nevertheless, here’s another #TBT review from January 2008.

I’m always on the hunt for a book to get The Prophet excited about reading…he loves Harry Potter, Hatchett and Old Yeller. Though he has never embraced reading for the joy of reading like yours truly and continues to view it (even now in 2017) as a chore. So after seeing the commercials for the upcoming Spiderwick movie I thought perhaps this is something that he might enjoy.

When I put a hold on The Nixie’s Song at the library I thought it was the first book but alas when I retrieved it, apparently it’s book one in the second series and way out of the age range for something that The Prophet could read.

But I read it anyway…and sorry I did. Trite and predictable and I think that if I read this when I was 7 years old I would have been turned off to reading. Here’s the gist of the story…Nick Vargas’ dad has recently remarried and with the new wife comes a new sister for Nick and his brother Jules/Julian (authors constantly switch between the two names).

Laurie is nerdy and fascinated by fairies. A fairy in the form of a nixie is discovered in the Vargas’ backyard, the fairy is saved from the giant but at the end, the pair still need to find the nixie’s missing sisters.

If I had read another children’s book, I would re-read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Loved that book growing up!