Over Christmas, when we were in Dallas, I bought Bianca book one of the Spiderwick Chronicles. The cover of the book seem like another Harry Potter book, something like that. She finished it in one day and asked for book two. So, instead, I just ordered the entire five-book set.
I never read Harry Potter--merely for the reason that everyone told me I HAD to read it--so I didn't think I'd read this either. I liked the pictures in the books, however, so I thought Bianca would definitely like them. And she did.
But during church on Sunday, while Bianca was reading book two, I leaned over her shoulder--out of boredom--and read too. Suddenly, I found myself scouring her backpack for book one, which Eric had just finished the night before. I then brought Portia home from church to get a nap she desperately needed and sat in front of the fire and finished book one.
We were all trying to convince each other to finish the books we were on, so that they could pass the books along so we could keep reading.
I admit these are not my typical type of book. But the strange thing is, at the beginning of page one, the illustrator thanks Arthur Rackham--an illustrator from the turn of last century who I've collected his books for years--for inspiring him. As I read along, I realized the author made this illustrator (who always drew a lot of goblins/fairies and such) as one of the characters in the book.
We devoured these books in a matter of days. Now we can't wait to get a babysitter for Portia, while the three of us have a "book club" (Bianca calls it) and go to see the movie when it comes out in a couple weeks.
