bookchatter

finished up the spiderwick chronicles, and i'd give them like a 5 out of 10. of course, they are kids books, but still... harry potter's a kids book, and it rates up around 10. just b/c they are kids books, they don't have to be inconsistent or incomplete.

for instance, there is a mention once or twice that a red shirt will protect one from faeries - like, "of course he was safe b/c of his red shirt" - something like that. but, the red-shirt theory was not previously espoused or explained. it's like a given that you would know this, which you could interpret as sort of cool that the author thinks you'd know this, or you could interpret as negligent editing. the supporting material was cut, but the use of the reference remained. this sort of thing happened a few times and is generally disconcerting.

being sure all material is explained should be held as highly important in a book for kids b/c they aren't going to have the capacity to make the connections. it's unfair b/c they're reading to learn. not that you're going to learn facts of math, geography, history, or the like from a book about faeries, but you're going to learn vocabulary, grammar, storytelling, plot structure, character development -- all that without realizing you're studying those things. you just pick it up because you're reading, and when it's done poorly, you don't learn much.

one excellent thing about spiderwick is that it's 5 volumes. the story doesn't drag out unnecessarily like the lemony snickets - which not only drag out but after volume 5 or so, the entire story disintegrates into a commentary on the publishing industry with all this insider snideness. not amusing, not plot related, and what about the freakin sugar bowl? that is a major plot device that is simply dropped & never resolved. the first few lemony snicket books would be somewhere around a 5 - the last few would be a 1.

the harry potter books are an excellent example of attention to detail in setting, plot, and character. they are recognized as sort of modern masterpieces, so it only stands to reason that they'd be well done. i'm just confirming they are, in fact, well done -- b/c my confirmation is really the ultimate stamp of approval.