Q&A with Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
Q: How did you two meet?
HB: I was working on a small “role-playing game culture” magazine called d8 and went to interview Tony. We had so much fun chatting that we wound up hanging out again at the Gen Con game fair. And then hanging out some more in Tony and his wife’s apartment in Brooklyn. And hanging out even more after that.
TD: Holly and I have been friends for a long time. One of our common bonds is that we are both BIG book lovers and also love games like Dungeons & Dragons. We also enjoyed the same fantasy movies growing up, films like Legend, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal. Especially the Jim Henson films—that’s why we dedicated Arthur’s Field Guide to him, his work was so dear to us.
HB: Another common bond is our interest in faeries. We can talk about faerie and folklore stuff endlessly, boring our spouses, Theo and Angela, nearly to death.
Q: After the Grace children made believers out of you, you decided to put their story into words and pictures in THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES. Tell us about your collaborative process.
TD: The interesting thing here is that Holly and I are both writers. Holly writes for an older audience (Ironside, Tithe, Valiant), and I write for a younger (Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure, Ted, G is for One Gzonk!). THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES is kind of a middle ground where both of our writing skills meet. We both love story and plot and approach storytelling from different angles, so this made for an interesting hybrid that I am not sure either of us would have done separately.
So bringing the Grace children’s tale to life was an experiment in true collaboration. Holly and I would discuss in detail the best way to tell the story, and at the end of the day, she would go off and actually write the story, and I would draw the illustrations.
HB: The greatest challenge for me was to take what the Grace children told us and translate it into a story. Life doesn’t occur the way the plot of a book does—there are a lot more boring bits and a lot more complexity and coincidence. I had to change things around and emphasize certain parts more than others to make the series work.
Working with Tony was really helpful in figuring out how to do that and looking at his art was always inspiring.
Q: Are you surprised by the success of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES?
HB: You could knock me over with a feather.
TD: Seriously, I am so blown away. It just goes to show that twenty-first-century children still love a good fairy tale.
Q: THE NIXIE’S SONG is the first book in the sequel series, BEYOND THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES. What’s THE NIXIE’S SONG about and why did you decide to write a new book cycle?
HB: We always said when we put out ARTHUR SPIDERWICK’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE FANTASTICAL WORLD that we were giving kids the tools to get in as much trouble as Jared, Simon, and Mallory did. Well, THE NIXIE’S SONG is about two kids—Nicholas and Laurie Vargas—who use the Field Guide to do just that. Set in Florida in an unfinished development, Nick is still trying to get used to the idea that his father has remarried and that he and Laurie are supposed to be family now. Forced to accompany her on what he thinks is a bogus hunt for faeries, he’s completely surprised to find one.
TD: Holly and I had long talks about the philosophy of a sequel. Personally, I like the “give me more of the same, but reinvent it, so it feels new and fresh again” approach, so we really took a lot of risks and spun all expectations every which way so it did not feel predictable at all. I hope the readers agree and like where we took it.
Q: Why did you decide to set THE NIXIE’S SONG in Florida, as opposed to the New England setting in the original SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES series?
TD: We always felt New England could be a likely place to see the faerie folk—it’s the part of our country where the early European settlers arrived and (therefore) their respective faeries through folk and fairy tales. We wanted to show that the fey could be found anywhere and picked an unlikely place–the hot, humid, scrubby woods of south Florida. I grew up down there, so I felt we could capture the mood and feel of this setting successfully.
It also offered us a chance to do some ocean- and water-based faeries, which we have been dying to do since we made Arthur’s Field Guide.
I also think there is an underlying theme of man vs. nature in the first books and it is something we certainly explore more in these new stories.
HB: Like Tony said, I think we really wanted to undermine some of people’s expectations of what a Spiderwick book was like, where it was set and even where faeries could occur. Setting the books in a place like Florida emphasizes the idea that faeries really are anywhere and everywhere. It also gives us an opportunity to play with the way a different landscape and climate affects the habits of creatures like faeries that are so tied to nature. It really has been a lot of fun.
Q: What’s the next BEYOND THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES book going to be about?
HB: Well, this one is hard to answer without spoilers, but while the first five Spiderwick chapter books were about a family that was splitting up, these new books are about a family that’s coming together. They’re also about a boy moving past the death of his mother and learning how to see himself as someone that matters.
TD: The creatures our heroes encounter in these books, I feel, are much more dangerous than the malicious characters from the first books.
Mulgarath (the ogre from the first books) was certainly a villainous character, but he outlined his plan of what he wanted to do, and our heroes were able to thwart it. In here, the giants are more like the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park—we are dealing with wild, untamed faeries and monsters here—and that excites me greatly. The stakes are much higher.
Q: I saw the trailer for the February 2008 release of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES MOVIE . . . it looks so cool! Can you tell us about the movie, and were you involved in making it?
TD: We were as involved as we needed to be. I’ve always said that ‘I make books not movies’, but I’ve always been excited about the process of seeing one of my creations getting adapted to film—and what a process that is!
Mark Waters, the director, was very respectful of the source material and really remained true to the spirit of the books. The production designer, Jim Bissell, also remained faithful to the spirit as he transformed my drawings into sets and props for the actors. Lastly, Phil Tippett and the folks at Industrial Light & Magic (led by Pablo Helman) did a fantastic job bringing to life the creatures from the Field Guide—it has been a dream come true for me to see the caliber of talent involved in bringing the Graces’ adventures to life.
HB: I have to agree with Tony, both about the caliber of the people involved and also about the excitement. We were involved with the scripts and gave notes throughout the process, but we also knew that the film would be different from the books and that part of that process (at least for us) would be letting go and putting our work into the hands of others. It was both amazing and unnerving to visit the set and walk through the rooms of the Spiderwick estate and watch Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, and Mary Louise Parker become the Grace family. There really is no feeling like it.
Q: Each of the books has been an instant bestseller. What about THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES do you think kids find so appealing and how is it different from other best-selling series?
HB: One difference is that The Spiderwick Chronicles are more of a serial than a series—they are really one story broken up into five books. But also, Jared, Simon, and Mallory are just regular kids in a magical world—their only powers are cleverness, compassion, and bravery. I think that kids respond to the idea of there being magic in their own backyards. I think we all like to believe that the world around us is a fantastical place, even if the magic is hidden from us most of the time.
TD: Exactly. These are ordinary kids in extraordinary circumstances. That’s a common formula for the classic fairy tale, and at heart, that’s what the Spiderwick books are.
I also think the books are different in that this serial is aimed at a younger reader than the other bigger/longer series that are out there. These books are meant to be quick enjoyable adventures. But when a younger reader finishes them all, he or she has read a five-hundred-page story, which is quite an accomplishment for a seven-year-old!
Q: What’s this International Sprite League I’ve been hearing about?
HB: The International Sprite League is a great way to hear about Spiderwick Chronicles news, get fun stuff, and, of course, learn more about sprites.
TD: In so many ways, the International Sprite League (ISL) is really the official Spiderwick fan club. We tried to create a bunch of cool FREE things that you can do and get through the website (www.internationalspriteleague.com). At the site, you can print your own membership card, take the ISL oath with Holly and I, download desktops, icons, and even an iron-on to make your own official gear! Not to mention you can access sneak peeks of upcoming Spiderwick goodies that we’re working on . . .
Contributor: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
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Reviews
The Nixie's Song
Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Nick was not exactly elated when his dad decided to remarry. He liked his new stepmother okay but her daughter was definitely disrupting Nick’s life. First, he had to give up his bedroom and move in with his older brother. He cringed when he saw what Laurie was moving into his room--boxes and boxes of books about unicorns and fairies. Then his dad told him to show Laurie around the neighborhood. She insisted on carrying the Spiderwick Field Guide to Fairies with her wherever she went. Nick followed Laurie reluctantly as she searched for some sign of mystical beings. Then he picked a four-leaf-clover and gained “the sight.” Nick and Laurie not only discovered a fairy in the nearby pond, they saw a giant waiting on the shore to snatch her if she stopped singing her soothing songs. They were determined to save the fairy. In the process they engaged Jared’s help (establishing the connecting link to the first series). The title page states that this is book one of three, therefore it is no surprise that the ending to this episode is abrupt, obviously aimed at creating interest in reading book two. Readers who enjoyed the first series will welcome this sequel. 2007, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, $10.99. Ages 8 to 12. Reviewer: Phyllis Kennemer, Ph.D. (Children's Literature).
Gone is the New England scenery of the original chronicles. Gone also are the three siblings, Mallory, Jared, and Simon Grace; however, this title is a stand alone with new characters that will continue the adventures into the world of the mystical. Nick Vargas, his brother Julian, and his new step-sister Laurie have arrived in Florida to be part of a new housing development planned by Nick’s father. The development, called Mangrove Hollow, is meant to be houses set in the midst of Florida nature, but there is another development here that the Vargas family has not yet noticed. When Laurie Vargas tries to convince her step-brother that the world is inhabited by fairies, Nick just chalks it up to his step-sister’s weirdness factor. Nick, however, will soon change his tune when a simple four leaf clover changes the way he sees his world. The pen and ink illustrations of Florida fauna are a delightful addition to this story. There is also a visit by one of the Grace siblings from the original chronicle stories. Readers who enjoyed the first series will welcome this new title that follows the same form as the original. This is an excellent title for the upper elementary and lower middle school reader. 2007, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, $10.99. Ages 9 to 12. Joyce Rice (Children's Literature).
ISBN: 0-689-87131-7
ISBN: 9780689871313
Updated 1/30/08
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