I had someone ask me just last night what I was reading. Although I haven't had time to read much in the last few weeks, this is the most recent book I've read.
The Field Guide introduces us to the Grace siblings. Mallory, oldest, is taking fencing lessons (one of my favorite lines from the book: "...Mallory would either be an Olympic fencer or in jail for stabbing someone with a sword.") and is a pretty decent older sister. Jared and Simon are twins. Jared is the one the book kind of centers around-- everything we read is from his point of view. Simon is portrayed as being the 'perfect one'. He's the one that's good at everything, loves animals, a straight-A student, and so on. However, Jared is the troublemaker-- he's been getting in a lot of trouble at school. In the beginning of the book, the Grace family (Mom, Mallory, Jared, and Simon) move into their mysterious great-aunt's old house. In their exploring (and trouble-making), Jared finds a secret room and an amazing old book with a warning on it: "Go away/close the book/put it down/do not look!" So what does Jared do? He reads it. From here on, the siblings are sucked into a magical world where the ordinary is the extraordinary. Faeries, boggarts, dwarves... they all really exist. And they're after The Book.
I saw the movie first (I know, shame on me) and loved it so much I decided to try the book. I was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting them to be kids' books, but they grabbed my attention right away. Realistic characters, great storyline, and fantastical ideas all lend themselves to make this a great series of books. Little did I realize that they're only around 100 pages each. Blast! Now it'll take me forever to get them all from the library! Oh, well. It's not like I actually have spare time to read, anyway.
Thumbs up!
