The Spiderwick Chronicles (Series)

The Field Guide

The first book in the series opens in New England, United States, where nine-year-old twins Jared and Simon and their thirteen-year-old sister Mallory move to the decrepit Spiderwick Estate with their mother, Helen. They discover a secret library hidden in the house, and in the library they find Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, a book full of information on faeries.

Several days later, while Jared, Simon and Mallory are in Uncle Arthur's study, a small man with a hat appears. The little man, named Thimbletack, is in fact a brownie that has transformed into a boggart when neglected. When a boggart, Thimbletack caused them all much trouble. He commands them to not open and read the Field Guide and leave it alone or suffer a terrible fate.

The Seeing Stone

After ignoring Thimbletack's warning, Simon is abducted by a group of invisible goblins. Thimbletack guides Jared to a seeing stone device created by his great-uncle which gives the ability to see faeries, called the Sight. Mallory and Jared go searching for him, narrowly escaping capture, and find the goblin camp. While rescuing Simon, the hobgoblin Hogsqueal convinces them to help him escape in exchange for his help in retrieving Simon. Hogsqueal spits in their eyes, giving them the Sight permanently. After rescuing Simon, they flee and lead the goblins to the troll where they meet their end. They rescue the rest of the goblin's victims and take an injured griffin back to their house.

Lucinda's Secret

The Grace children visit their Great-Aunt Lucinda, who is now in a psychiatric hospital. When they speak to her, they learn more about the world of faerie creatures, the Field Guide, and its author, Arthur Spiderwick, who was Aunt Lucinda's father. Arthur had disappeared when Lucinda was still a little girl and the Grace children later find out where he disappeared to when they stumble upon a forest of elves. On their journey they meet Stray-Sods, grass that can move, and a Phooka, a strange creature that talks only in riddles. Jared is captured by the elves, but tricks them into making a pact so that Simon will be trapped instead of him. They all manage to escape, but only by promising them that they will bring the field guide to them when it is found.

he Ironwood Tree

The family attends Mallory's fencing contest at school. During the contest, Jared finds a boy identical to him going through Mallory's bag. He transforms into a smaller kid when Jared attempts to scare him with his knife. When Jared and Simon discover that Mallory has disappeared, they search for her in an abandoned quarry, but wind up being kept prisoner by dwarves. Mallory is revealed to be sleeping in a glass-coffin dressed in medieval garb, with the dwarves saying she is now immortal, so long as she stays in the coffin. Escaping their cage, the twins free Mallory and meet a strange creature, called a Knocker, who tells them the way out by listening to the stones. They next see a huge metal tree, made by the dwarves, which is called the Ironwood Tree. After a narrow escape from the dwarves' mechanical dogs, they make their way out of the tunnel but have to hide before leaving. They secretly watch Mulgarath, a hideous ogre who wants to rule the world, callously order the death of the dwarves for having been tricked into not getting the Field Guide from Jared. The dwarves are mauled to death by the goblins and Mulgarath reveals that he had the guide the whole time. The siblings escape just after Mulgarath disappears into the rock.

The Wrath of Mulgarath

The Grace children return from the quarry to the Spiderwick estate, only to find the house in ruins and their mother gone. Hogsqueal the hobgoblin informs them that the house was destroyed by the goblins who have kidnapped their mother and taken her to the palace of their fearsome master, Mulgarath the ogre. Accompanied by Hogsqueal, the siblings journey to Mulgarath's palace, an immense citadel made of garbage where they battle a legion of goblins. Mallory runs the leader through with her sword and is greatly traumatised by having actually killed a living sentient being. Nevertheless she and her brothers defeat the goblins and discover Mulgarath's plan. The ogre has learned from the Field Guide that fresh cows milk makes young dragons rapidly mature. He has stolen a number of cows and is using them to breed an army of dragons with which he plans to conquer the world. Jared successfully vanquishes the mother dragon and Simon kills the young. Infiltrating the palace, they find their mother and father tied up. They release their father, but discover that he is actually Mulgarath in disguise. The ogre brags of his plan and reveals that the Field Guide is underneath his throne. Jared mockingly tells Mulgarath that he and his siblings have killed the dragons. In a rage, Mulgarath flings Simon and Mallory out of the window but they grab onto chains and don't fall. Jared stabs Mulgarath in the foot with Mallory's sword, then knocks him out of the window. When Mulgarath falls and transforms into a swallow, he is eaten by Hogsqueal.

The children return home, where they meet Arthur Spiderwick, who had been living with the elves and so had not aged. He and his daughter Lucinda, now an old woman, share a poignant goodbye, and then he turns to dust. With Mulgarath defeated, the Grace family is presumably now free to live happily ever after.