The Spiderwick Chronicles: Care and Feeding of Sprites
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The Spiderwick Chronicles Care and Feeding of Sprites (ISBN-10 : 1-4169-2646-1) is a book by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, published in 2006. It is to accompany the Spiderwick series, about three siblings who encounter magical beings in an old mansion they move into. The main content is centered around sprites, a species of fairy mentioned in the series, then illustrated and their habits mentioned in Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. However, this book goes further in explaining about the species, because it is written as a guide to owning and caring for them.
[edit] Inside
On one side of each page of a section, there are detailed illustrations of individual sprite breeds, with their traits listed on the side in the form of icons. the basic traits include :
- preferred habitat (e.g. prefers cold, prefers humid)
- primary locomotion (e.g. walks, flies)
- general disposition (e.g. melancholy, tricksy)
There are also additional traits such as 'Bites', 'Thinks it can sing', 'Clean', 'Causes blooms', and 'Not trainable' (a few have difficult temperaments, but most are either trainable, or that trait not shown).
The text tell the reader about the dangers, requirements, and advantages of owning a sprite. There is a section on their anatomy, obtaining a sprite, selection of a sprite, differenchiating between what is and what is not a sprite, sexing the sprite (apparently, the best means is asking... politely), housing, grooming, feeding, clothing, diagnosing, and releasing (with some tips on helping the grieving process) and more. Near the back, there is some information about the International Sprite League, a Spiderwick website.
