The Fantastical Field Guide

The Guide (eeek!) Don't take it outside the circle!

Thank you Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi for creating the wonderful world of Spiderwick!  At first I was really creeped out by the movie, but this summer Dakota and I read all the books in the series and he just dove into them. He now chatters away talking about boggarts and goblins and the horrible Mulgarath.  I found a little foam circle and gave it to him for a "seeing stone" so he can see the goblins when he looks through it like Jared does in the book and sure enough he runs around with it all the time. His big brother, Dustin, even did him the favor of glueing it to his eyebrow!

Mulgarath

Not only has it uncapped his wellspring of imagination, he has also created his own Fieldguide from the website. Each day we'd print a different section and he'd do the activity or paint the picture, but then he started making his own drawings and writing in it like Aurthur Spiderwick. I bound it for him and he's been looking forward to sharing it during "show and tell" at school today. Even the big brothers are getting a kick out of it and feeding into his imaginative stories with the brownie, Thimbletack.

His birthday is just around the corner and he requested a Spiderwick Birthday. Well, they don't sell much with Spiderwick (which is one thing I love about it - forces him to create instead of buy), so we ordered the pop up Spiderwick board game and McDonald's Spiderwick figurines for him.....and of course an official eyepiece!

What books or series of books have encouraged you or your little ones to take it to the next level and make it "real" for you? Twilight? Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings?