This self-inclusion works great for Lemony Snicket, since he's actually a character in the story, and of course a pseudonym besides, but in Spiderwick it comes across as gimmicky and self-indulgent. Then, the story REALLY took a bizarre turn when the authors actually inserted themselves in the book, as writers of the original series and the spin-off Field Guide who do a book signing in Orlando. The story doesn't really go anywhere to speak of, and it all seemed a little bit like an excuse to just drop the series in the new, interesting locale of Florida during the muggy summertime (the original series was set in Maine) and introduce a bunch of new creatures that they didn't get to use last time. The characters are flat and have very little personality (and when they do, it seems pretty forced), and Nick, the main protagonist, is unpleasant throughout. This first in the series was pretty weak. Then when browsing at the library, I found all three just sitting there, nice and small and very attractive in design, so I decided to pick them up. Besides, they didn't REALLY have that much of an effect on me, as books that I found to be, as a friend put it, Lemony Snicket Lite. It seemed like a opportunist spin-off, and it felt like the first one tied itself up pretty nicely. I read the first five-book series of The Spiderwick Chronicles, and saw the movie when it was released a few years later, but until lately hadn't felt much interest for the follow-up series of three. He has been featured in Time magazine, USA Today, CNN, PBS, NPR the BBC and The Today Show. The Norman Rockwell museum’s retrospective, “Never Abandon Imagination”, featured artwork from the beginning of DiTerlizzi’s career as a contributing artist for Dungeons & Dragons and broke attendance records. He teamed up with Lucasfilm to retell the original Star Wars trilogy as a picture book and his collaboration with celebrated author Mo Willems created the bestseller The Story of Diva & Flea. With Holly Black, he created the middle-grade series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold over 20 million copies, been adapted into a feature film, and translated in over thirty countries. From fanciful picture books like The Broken Ornament and The Spider & The Fly (a Caldecott Honor book), to chapter books like Kenny and The Dragon and The Search for WondLa, DiTerlizzi imbues his stories with rich imagination. #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, Tony DiTerlizzi, has been creating children’s books for twenty years.

The Nixie's Song by Tony DiTerlizzi