Review: The Ironwood Tree by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

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by First Mate Keira, guest reviewer

Title: The Ironwood Tree (Book 4: The Spiderwick Chronicles)
Author: Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black
Format: Hardcover
# of pages: 108
Grade Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Summary: At Mallory’s fencing competition, Jared spies a girl trying to break into his sister’s backpack. When corning the girl, Jared discovers that the girl is fey when she first shapeshifts into Jared’s triplet and then into a young boy. But cornering a shapeshifting fey is not a smart idea as the adults see only what they want to see which leads to Jared’s expulsion. While Simon tries to stand up for him, Mallory is tricked and kidnapped. Will the Jared and Simon be able to save their sister?

Why I Started the Book:

I wanted to finish the Spiderwick Chronicles so I grabbed the two remaining novels. There’s only five in total before the series stops following the Grace children and moves in another direction.

Likes:

The dwarves are master metalsmiths. What they can do with metal humans can only dream of and they’re very painstaking with their efforts so that every little thing is perfect. They take much pride in their work which is their downfall.
The metal tree underground in the dwarves’ kingdom (otherwise known as the ironwood tree) and the metal dogs. The illustrations and depictions were great.
The Knocker that they meet underground during their escape has a feel of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, but without the whole creepy Precious aspect. Luckily, he’s helpful and can hear what stones speak.

Dislikes:

Mulgarath’s casual genocide of the dwarves when he discovers they’ve been tricked by Jared and Simon and don’t have the Field Guide. He orders the goblins do all the killing. Afterward Mulgarath reveals that he had the guide the whole time. Why would he do that? Hopefully it’s revealed in the next book.
When the Grace children return home they find their mother has been kidnapped and that Hogsqueal helped. Hogsqueal is now looking like a nefarious character, but he swears he had no choice that it was join or die.

Buy: The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 4), The Spiderwick Chronicles (Boxed Set; Books 1-5)

Book Rating: 3 Treasure Chests
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Keira runs a book review blog for readers by readers on romance novels entitled Love Romance Passion. She’s been reading romance since she was in her teens and began blogging about romance so she could share her passion for her favorite genre. She loves reading paranormal, Regency, historical America, and highlander most of all and completely adores blind and wounded heroes.