Catch a Spiderwick

You know I love fairy tales.

Blessed with an overabundance of imagination - and obviously prone to flights of fancy, I was the peculiar boy who built quaint country cottages for the visiting fairies out of sticks and stones, set out comfy lil beds made out of requisitioned matchboxes and guava leaves and dredge small routes for them to take through the garden. There was even a time ingenious me hammered together a seriously kewl wooden shack out of ice-cream sticks. Even then, it was a home decor masterpiece of country living.

Of course rather than provide lodgings for assorted mystical creatures on the move ( returning to the Undying Lands? ), my little plot had M.A.S.K. action figurines posed in oddly discerning tableaus of human life. Even then I must have some slight inkling of my burgeoning homosexuality since how else would Matt Trakker possibly be shacking up in the boonies with Dr Julio Lopez?

I was a seriously disturbed child, I'm sure. No doubt my father must have wondered whether I was a fey changeling - and probably considered a trip to the child psychologist.


Breaking all the rules
But I guess I'm not the only one who believes in fairies, goblins, elves - and everything else monstrous that lives right under the bed. Once ensconced into the spooky Spiderwick mansion hastily abandoned by the last occupant - a dotty aunt clapped up in an asylum, the Grace children are forced to come to terms with this eerie supernatural world as well.

All very Gothic.

After all who could possibly blame Jared Grace for his innate inquisitiveness when he stumbles on a dusty old book ( marked with an ominous caution on the leather-bound cover! ) in the attic. After all, we're all drawn to the forbidden apple as children - no doubt I'd have fallen for the same trick myself! Of course disregarding the warning by opening the book unleashes an astonishing maelstrom of devastation as entire armies of goblins, beasts and demons come rushing up for new copies of Arthur Spiderwick's notorious bestseller.

Some overzealous fans just can't wait for the publication date, fighting tooth and claw for first dibs.

Seems like Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You contains secrets no one should ever know - and every power-hungry megalomaniac of that fantastical world just craves. Reason enough that the three Graces ( HAH! ) must fight to keep it safe.


Unfortunately most creatures dragged out from the slimy pits of hell don't look like this!
Despite coughing in intervals throughout the movie ( after being talked into some afternoon delight by my ISO ), no one saw fit to hand me a cough lozenge. What a disillusionment. Have the commercials been lying?

Definite recommendation for the movie though. Just an enchanting PG-rated pseudo-Gothic adventure that's far more acceptable to innocent eyes than the previous visceral, oft-malevolent Pan's Labyrinth.

Of course the movie The Spiderwick Chronicles inspired me enough to search for the entire series. After getting talked into it by my ISO, I purchased a treasure chest set of the Spiderwicks. Easy enough reading with some old-fashioned etchings interspersed throughout. Should be enough to while away a few hours of my time.