The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles series)

The Field Guide

Tony DiTerlizzi (Illustrator); Holly Black

Though I work in a bookstore, I discovered 1 2 3 when my brother gave it to my one-year-old daughter with the intention of helping her learn to count. At first glance I thought it was a nice counting book with beautiful illustrations. Once we read it a couple times, though, I began to notice details I had missed that made reading this book so much more than reciting numbers.

Each page represents a number and also offers delightful hidden surprises. The number six, for example, stars Hansel and Gretel and six shiny sweets, six lollipops outside the witch’s house, six mushrooms in the yard, six white birds, and six cats sulking about. Every page is a scavenger hunt with tons of little details tucked into the nooks and crannies of the illustrations that reinforce that page’s number. Children (and their parents) will enjoy recognizing characters they know well, with spreads depicting scenes from fairy tales from Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk to The Red Shoes and Little Red Riding Hood. There are often characters from other stories slipped into the background, foreshadowing their dedicated page to come. If you look out the window of the Gingerbread Man’s kitchen, for example, you will see Jack’s beanstalk off in the distance and the Ugly Duckling’s pond on the horizon.

This is one counting book I won’t mind reading over and over because I find new details each time we read it. My daughter, at one, is captivated by the illustrations. She loves pointing out the different animals and details. I can only imagine that as she gets older, she will love the treasure-hunt aspects this book offers even more than I do. I think it will help make counting and learning math a lot of fun for her!

Format

Hardcover

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

“Appealing characters, well-measured suspense and an inviting package will lure readers…younsgters may well find themselves glancing over their shoulders.” – Publishers Weekly

“With their evocative gothic-style pencil drawings and color illustrations, rhyming riddles, supernatural lore, and well-drawn characters, these books read like old-fashioned ripping yarns.” – New York Times

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Banks, Lynne Reid. The Fairy Rebel. Doubleday, 1988.

Black, Holly, and Tony DiTerlizzi. The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2: The Seeing Stone. Simon & Schuster, 2003. (And others in the Spiderwick Chronicles series.)

Climo, Shirley. Piskies, Spriggans, and Other Magical Beings: Tales from the Droll-Teller. Crowell, 1981.

Corbett, Sue. 12 Again. Dutton, 2002.

Dahl, Roald. The Witches. Farrar, 1983.

DiTerlizzi, Tony, and Holly Black. The Nixie’s Song. Simon and Schuster, 2007. (And others in the Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series.)

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. HarperCollins, 2002.

Gormley, Beatrice. Fifth-Grade Magic. Dutton, 1982.

Hahn, Mary Downing. Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story. Clarion, 1994.

Howitt, Mary. The Spider and the Fly. Illus. by Tony DiTerlizzi. Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. HarperCollins, 1950. (And others in the Chronicles of Narnia series.)

Nodelman, Perry. The Same Place But Different. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Pratchett, Terry. The Wee Free Men. HarperCollins, 2003.

Snicket, Lemony. The Bad Beginning. HarperCollins, 2000. (And others in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series.)