38 pages • 1 hour read
The Field Guide
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Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “IN WHICH They Find Unexpected Things in the Icebox”
In the morning, Jared’s mom angrily brings him downstairs to show him a mess in the kitchen. Food is splashed everywhere, including on the floor. She thinks he did it. He notices tiny tracks in the mess and points to them, but Mallory accuses him of designing them. Despite his protests, his mom sweeps them away. Simon is crying: His arms have bruises, his mice are gone, and inside the freezer his tadpoles lie frozen in ice. A note says: “Not very nice to ice the mice” (80).
Jared’s mom makes Jared take out the trash. On the way, he snags one bag on a branch, and it spills open to reveal the boggart’s things from inside the kitchen wall. Wondering if he can somehow use these items to lure the boggart into a trap, he sets them aside. His mom confronts him again, saying he must learn how to manage his anger like his siblings, or she’ll take him to a psychologist. Jared realizes his protests about faeries make him sound like Aunt Lucy.
Chapter 7 Summary: “IN WHICH the Fate of the Mice Is Discovered”
Jared finds Mallory and Simon watching TV and asks them to help him. He explains that everything started when they pulled the things out of the wall. Mallory grabs the field guide and says: “This book is what started all the trouble” (91). She prepares to tear it apart at the spine. Jared begs her to stop, saying he found the book after the trouble started.
Simon asks what help he wants. Jared says he collected the boggart’s trashed items and put them in a birdhouse from the attic. Maybe the boggart, like them, is stuck in the house and angry about it; if they can return the creature’s personal items—say, to the relative safety of the library—maybe that will mollify the boggart. But he needs their help with the dumbwaiter to do it.
Jared shows them the birdhouse. Inside, he’s arranged the boggart’s things, including its newspaper clippings; he also cut a few pictures from his mom’s magazines. Mallory is impressed. Simon says he’ll help, but only if he can visit the library first.
The children sneak over to the dumbwaiter and Simon gets in. Mallory pulls on the rope and Simon goes up to the library. Mallory tells Jared that if there’s a desk in there, there must be a secret doorway. Jared and the birdhouse go up next. In the library, Jared tells Simon about Mallory’s secret door idea. He figures out which library wall is nearest a hallway. The boys open a cabinet on that wall and find they’re in an upstairs closet.
They bring Mallory through the closet to the library. Jared hangs the birdhouse from a wall light. The children tidy up the birdhouse’s interior, and each adds something—a glove from Jared for a sleeping bag; a lizard water dish from Simon; the fencing medal from Mallory—in hopes these will please the boggart.
They look around for ink to write a note to the boggart. In the process, they discover a watercolor of a man and a girl: A penciled note makes clear that the girl is their great-aunt Lucinda, and the man is her father, Arthur Spiderwick. Simon dictates a note—Mallory writes it down—that apologizes to the boggart, hopes it likes the birdhouse, hopes it will stop pinching their arms, and asks that it take care of the mice. They place the note on the floor near the birdhouse and leave the library.
During the next few days, construction workers help repair the house. At night, Jared’s mom patrols the halls, and the kids can’t sneak over to the library. School starts up: It’s got a fencing team, no bullies so far, and Jared avoids fights.
On Sunday, Mrs. Grace goes shopping, and the kids promptly rush to the library. The note is gone; someone clears their throat, and the kids turn. Standing on the desk is a man the height of a pencil who looks exactly like one of the paintings in the field guide. He holds two tiny leashes that restrain Simon’s two mice. Speaking in rhyme, he calls himself “Thimbletack,” declares that he likes the birdhouse, and warns the children that they must get rid of the guide or face the wrath of some of the creatures it describes.
Thimbletack hurries away. The Grace kids now know for sure that faeries are real. If the field guide is correct, Thimbletack is merely one of many, many types of such creatures. A lot more are out there. The children realize that “worst of all, they were only at the beginning” (107).
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
In the final chapters, the conflict between the Grace children and the house’s mysterious mischief-maker comes to a head. The children meet Thimbletack the brownie-boggart, living proof that faeries are real.
The boggart collects newspaper clippings; among them are cutouts of words such as “Luminous” and “Soliloquy.” The creature also leaves little poetic notes for the humans. This implies that boggarts are literate and intelligent enough to notice interesting language. It also means that, as enemies, they’re likely a handful.
Since most people disbelieve in such creatures, and because Jared lately has been acting up, his mom and sister think he’s the cause of the kitchen mess and the other pranks, illustrating the novel’s theme of Alienation from Family. Jared’s twin brother, who knows him better than anyone else and has some knowledge about the behavior of small creatures, understands that Jared isn’t the culprit. Neither boy can prove it, though.
Jared thus finds himself in the position of trying to fix a problem he’s accused of creating. He realizes that the troubles he’s lately gotten into haven’t eased his agony about his parents’ divorce, but they have succeeded in ruining his reputation, to the point where no one believes him when he finally tries to help. Jared quickly gives up his campaign to convince his mother of his innocence; instead, he decides to try to mend fences with the boggart on the theory that, if the faerie ceases its mischief, pressure on Jared will ease.
The novel suggests that perseverance is rewarded. Jared works hard and successfully solves the mystery. He enlists the help of his siblings and together they mollify the boggart, showing The Value of Kindness and the importance of working as a team. Through Jared, the authors also show The Importance of Purpose. Adrift after his parents’ divorce, Jared’s mission grounds him and gives him a sense of meaning.
This section sets up the following books in the series. In Chapter 7, the last and longest, the kids discover that faeries are real, that angry ones can be mollified, that there are a lot more types lurking nearby, and that the field guide itself is dangerous. The novel thus ends on a cliffhanger.
In the books that follow, the guidebook will become a source of conflict; the kids will meet many new creatures, some evil and some friendly, and the mystery about what happened to Arthur Spiderwick will be solved. Even the children’s estranged father will make an appearance. The adventure continues in the second book, The Seeing Stone.
(For more about the Spiderwick book series, see: Further Reading & Resources.)
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