ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

With ties to the tradition of medieval bestiaries as well as the authors' Spiderwick series of fantasy fiction, this beautifully illustrated book purports to be the painstaking restoration of a century-old guide to the denizens of the Invisible World. In the first volume of the Spiderwick series, three children find their ancestor's original field guide and encounter creatures described within it. Here that field guide is reproduced. Its tawny pages carry information and graceful gouache and pencil illustrations of strange creatures from household brownies to freshwater nixies, from humble sprites to flamboyant cockatrices, from lowly fire salamanders to high-flying griffins. Occasional foldout pages extend the pictures to show larger beasts, such as a sea serpent or a dragon. Accompanying sepia notes set in cursive contribute to the illusion that Arthur Spiderwick was a naturalist observing the world around him. Readers who devoured the five-volume Spiderwick series will enjoy poring over the handsome pages of this large-format book. And others insistent on reading nonfiction books about the creatures of fairy will find it equally beguiling.

Horn Book (Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This companion to the popular series presents a "restored" version of Arthur Spiderwick's guide, a main plot element in the novels. Filled with illustrations and excerpts from Arthur's journals, the guide gives detailed information on a range of magical beings, all in Arthur's own old-fashioned voice. The book includes a table of contents and a list of related books.

School Library Journal (Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 3-6-This field guide purports to be a copy of Arthur Spiderwick's sketches and investigations into the beings and beasties of the "Invisible World"-the brownies, boggarts, kelpies, and other creatures that populate the stories. The beautiful illustrations in gouache and pencil, seemingly modeled after Audubon's work in Birds of America, are printed as if they were real century-old artworks that have left their shadowy imprints on the opposite pages. The descriptions are bits of Spiderwick's hard-learned lore, many apparently in his own handwriting, that make the art all the richer. Fantasy readers will love immersing themselves in the lore of the hidden-those things that only they, and people who are like them, can see. Field Guide will be pored over by anyone, of any age, who believes in sprites, phookas, and nixies.-Walter Minkel, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.