Product Description

Things at the Grace residence are getting completely out of hand. As if being attacked by goblins and almost eaten by a bridge troll wasn't enough, now the house boggart, Thimbletack, is out to get Jared. Simon has a very hungry griffon recuperating in the carriage house, and Mallory is convinced that the only way to stop the madness is to get rid of the Guide. But fortunately for Jared, it seems that is not an option. With all kinds of creatures after them, the Guide is the only protection the Grace kids have. If only they could work out why the faeries are stalking them? Could it be the Guide that they want? There's only one person who might know the answer - their crazy old Aunt Lucinda.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62855 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

About the Author
Holly Black spent her early years in a decaying Victorian mansion where her mother fed her a steady diet of ghost stories and faerie tales. An avid collector of rare folklore volumes, spooky dolls, and crazy hats, she lives in West Long Branch, New Jersey, with her husband, Theo. This is her first book. For more information, visit www.blackholly.com. Mary Botham Howitt was born in 1799 in Coleford, England. Originally published in 1829, Mary's best-known work 'The Spider and the Fly' has been enjoyed by generations of readers and has become an age old classical cautionary tale. Mary Howitt died in Rome in 1888. Tony DiTerlizzi's unique and unusal artstyle is the perfect complement to Howitt's classic tale. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

Best of the Spiderwick Chronicles so far
'Lucinda's Secret' is the third book in the Spiderwick Chronicles - continuing from where Book 2 -'The Seeing Stone' left off.

The Grace children are in more danger than ever. Thimbletack their house-boggart has fallen out with nine year-old-Jared because he refuses to give him Arthur Spiderwick's old book containing the truth about the invisible faerie world - only now, it isn't invisible to the Grace kids any longer. A hobgoblin spat in their eyes, giving them 'the sight,' and now they see magical creatures that are invisible to their mother and everyone else. This is perhaps as well, as Jared's twin brother Simon is looking after an enormous injured griffin!

The old house that the Grace family live in belongs to their Great Aunt Lucinda - locked away in an insane asylum for refusing food and claiming she is fed by faeries. Jared realizes that their mad relative isn't perhaps as insane as people think - so he, Simon and Mallory visit her, to ask her advice about what they should do with the Field Guide. But when they return home they are in for an unpleasant surprise. This time their adventure involves a phooka, a unicorn and some beautiful yet sinister elves.

These little books are like something from a bygone era. The writing is a delight - but it is the illustrations that make them truly special. They are amply illustrated with fabulous 'Arthur Rackham' style pictures that will delight children from 8 to 80.

This book is the third in a series of five - about the strange, magical, and decidedly dangerous inhabitants of the invisible faerie world that surrounds us. The Spiderwick Chronicles continue with: Book 4 - 'The Ironwood Tree.'

The children meet Aunt Lucy
By now you have figured out that the Spiderwick Chronicles are actually one story split over several books much as the Tolkien story is not a trilogy but a one story split over three books.

In the last book we see that the children made up a lame excuse for their foray into the magical world around them.

Now they wonder why the Field Guide is of interest to every one and go to Aunt Lucinda for answers. As you recall Aunt Lucinda is in the Nut house, oops, rest home for eccentrics. They get more than they planned on.

We follow them as they discover the mystery of the missing Arthur Spiderwick. The adventure has a sort of Alice feel.

Be he alive or be he dead
They think they know
Which way Arthur fled.

A Good Book, but not the best!
Lucinda's Secret was the first Spiderwick Novel(well book)that i read, it immediately encaptured me into the world of the Grace children.Sadly the one complaint i have about these books are the length and size of them. I read it all in 30 mins after being chased by a swarm of wasps, it left be dying to read the others, but at that time the 4th book hadn't come out so i decided to read books 1 and 2. I read book 2 first and i finished it in 20 mins. I have now read book 1 eleven times (each time taking me 20 mins approx. and i never get bored of it.) This book is a good book, but not the best in the set.