The Nixie's Song: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles

The Nixie's Song | Fantasy | Holly Black | No Awards | ages 7-11 | 

Nicholas is struggling to adjust to the new living arrangements after his dad remarried and gained a stepsister in the process. He has to deal with giving up his room for her, feeling unheard by his dad and his brother alike. Laurie, his new stepsister, is a bright imaginative girl who is obssesed with fairies thing sof that sort. She drags Nick into her adventures and together, they discover something magical in the nearby forest. A creature has asked for their help to find her sisters and Nick and Laurie go off into their mission. In the process, they come across a bigger, scarier creature and must find a way to finish their quest once and for all. In the journey, they meet new people and the mystery deepens. 

Holly Black has created this series to write about the mystical adventures of these kids. This book holds descriptive imagery, a good plot, but nonetheless, I wouldn't want to read this book to my class. It was a good book but not as captivating to me as I thought I'd be. However, the reason why I won't be using this book in the class is because it's a whole series followed by books, by books, etc. There isn't a lot of time in the classroom to read so many books. Instead, I would have it available to students in our class book shelf, or recommend it to them if they want to dive into a series of mystery and adventure. I think the appropriate classroom level would be second grade to sixth grade. The big wasn't as long or difficult, making it easy for second graders to understand and holding  a good story plot with relatable points. This brings me to my next point, in which some assignments or activities I would use with this book is discussing family arrangements. We all have different home styles, and Nick from the book has heavy feelings to share. We can discuss as a class our living arrangements (if they are comfortable doing so) and learning about them. We can also learn from this book establishing relationships, the way Nick and his new stepsister go through in the midst of this adventure, going from not liking each other, to becoming tolerable of one another.