The Field Guide

The Field Guide (2003) is the first book in The Spiderwick Chronicles, five fantasy-adventure novels for middle-grade readers. Written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black and illustrated by DiTerlizzi, The Field Guide tells of three children who move with their mother to an old Victorian mansion, where they must deal with a mischievous creature that lives inside the walls. The book became a New York Times bestseller and has been translated for 30 countries. The Spiderwick series was adapted for film in 2008 and for TV in 2023.

Award-winning author Tony DiTerlizzi designed artwork and instruction manuals for several games, including Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. His adaptation of the poem The Spider and the Fly was a New York Times bestseller and won the Caldecott Honor. Bestselling author Holly Black has won a Newbery Honor and a Nebula award, among other prizes, and one of her books reached number one on the Times bestseller list.

The 2023 re-release of the 2013 e-book version forms the basis for this study guide.

Plot Summary

The three Grace children arrive with their mother at their new home, a broken-down Victorian mansion on a large rural property. It’s owned by their great-aunt Lucinda, who lives in a psychiatric institution. Thirteen-year-old Mallory Grace is a champion fencer. She and her nine-year-old twin brothers Jared, a misfit, and Simon, a collector of small animals, hear noises coming from the house walls. Mallory and the twins follow the sounds to the kitchen, where Mallory pokes a hole in the wall that reveals a space decorated with random trinkets. Hoping to get rid of the critter that did the collecting, they pull out the junk and throw it away.

The sound moves again, and they chase it to a dumbwaiter. Jared climbs in while Mallory pulls on a rope that lifts him upstairs. He steps out into a hidden room that contains bookshelves and a dusty desk; the room has no door. Jared finds an old note with a riddle about something in the torso of a man located high up, a thing that will solve a great mystery. He hears rustling, turns to the desk, and finds, newly inscribed in the dust on its surface, a warning to watch his back.

The next day, Mallory wakes to find her hair tied to her bed’s metal headboard. The children’s mom thinks Jared did it, but Mallory knows he wouldn’t dare. Jared explores the attic and, above it, a tower room where he finds, hidden in an old trunk, a leather-bound notebook. Handwritten and strewn with drawings, the book describes varieties of faeries to be found in and around the building. It’s by Arthur Spiderwick, father of the children’s great-aunt Lucinda.

Jared stays up late reading the book. He shows Simon the entry that describes the creature that he thinks lives in their walls. It’s a boggart, a type of brownie who ekes out vengeance on those who make it angry.

In the morning, the kitchen is a complete mess, food strewn everywhere, and some of Simon’s pet animals are missing or frozen in refrigerator ice. Jared gets blamed and punished with chores. On taking out the trash, he finds the boggart’s decorative baubles and assembles them inside a birdbath. He convinces Mallory and Simon to help him ride the dumbwaiter to the hidden library, where he stashes the birdhouse in hopes the boggart will find and appreciate it. Simon joins him, and they find a secret door to an upstairs closet; they bring Mallory through that door to the library. The kids write a note to the boggart, apologizing and hoping for a truce.

Some days later, the trio sneaks back to the library where they meet a very small person who thanks them for the birdhouse but warns them that the field guide is dangerous and must be destroyed, lest angry creatures cause them harm. The kids realize they’ve barely begun their adventure with the faeries.