Spiderwick Chronicles??? Grade level?

[m0mmaBuck]

And are these "twaddle?"

 

I skimmed the 1st one before letting DS reading it (for content) but I wanted some other thoughts.

[Parrothead]

Dd read them all through 4th grade. She was 9. She likes to read her favorites over and over so she read the whole series many many times that year.

[m0mmaBuck]

So they are a 3rd-4th grade level-ish book then? I have such a hard time knowing what grade/age level books are geared toward! DS really seems to like the 1st one.

 

DS likes fantasy and plays Dungeons and Dragons. He enjoyed the Moongobble series (Coville) so maybe we'll try The Unicorn Series next.

Edited April 19, 2011 by m0mmaBuck

[gingersmom]

My son read them in 4th grade.

[Kalmia]

Just in case you have a super-sensitive child, my son read one of these in 2nd grade, was terrified by one of the illustrations, asked me to cut it out of the book and get it out of the house. I did.

[mama2cntrykids]

My ds8 just got done reading the series. He **really** enjoyed them. I would consider them twaddle, but when you have a young boy as picky as mine about the types of books he reads, they will do nicely!

[mama2cntrykids]

My ds8 just got done reading the series. He **really** enjoyed them. I would consider them twaddle, but when you have a young boy as picky as mine about the types of books he reads, they will do nicely!

[3lilreds in NC]

Abbie read them at 8 also. She is a picky reader too. Any time I tried to assign another book she told me if I wanted her to be happy I would only ask her to read Spiderwick. :lol:

[Lizzie in Ma]

My little one adored them on her first read through and loves them still.

I think they are delightful.

[Farrar]

I think they're about 3rd grade level. 4th surprises me.

 

They aren't the most literary thing ever so they aren't something I would ever assign my kids to read, but they also are greatly imaginative and I really like Diterlizzi as an illustrator - I adored his Search for Wondla, which was just great (and a slightly higher reading level). I heard him and Holly Black talk about their collaborative process together and it actually made me like the books more because they were so interesting. So I think they're certainly fine for pleasure reading and would even suggest them to a kid into fantasy. But I don't buy into the concept of "twaddle."

[elise1mds]

I subbed in a third grade class a couple years ago, and the teacher was reading the first book to the class. She used a literature-based curriculum, and a chapter of "Spiderwick" was the twaddle treat given at the end of the day.

 

Funny story to go with it: She pulled her spelling/vocab words from some of the other reading material. One of the words I got to teach was "massacre." I asked the kids what they thought it meant and got one boy who quite earnestly answered, "OH, I know!! It's that stuff girls put on their eyelashes!" We all had a good giggle at that.