This article is about the book. For the object, see Seeing Stone (object). The Seeing Stone is the second book in the Spiderwick Chronicles. It was written by Holly Black, illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi and published alongside the first book in May 2003 at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Synopsis[]
After the Grace children ignore Thimbletack's warning to destroy the Guide, Simon is abducted by a group of goblins who live in the woods surrounding the house. Thimbletack leads Jared and Mallory to the old carriage house where they find a "seeing stone" (a stone with a natural hole in it) which gives the wearer, in this case Jared, the ability to see faeries (called the Sight). After Jared and Mallory narrowly avoid being captured by the goblins, they go searching for Simon in the woods. On their way through the forest, they encounter a troll residing in the river by a decrepit stone bridge.
Partially protected by the daylight, they are able to avoid it, but lose their fencing weapons. After encountering a wounded griffin, they find the goblin camp and a plethora of prisoners hanging in cages made from refuse from the trees. While trying to rescue Simon, they meet a prisoner named Hogsqueal, a hobgoblin, who convinces them to help him escape in exchange for his help in rescuing Simon. Hogsqueal offers to spit in their eyes, which gives them the Sight without using the stone. Hogsqueal distracts the goblins from the children's escape and in return, Jared, Simon and Mallory attract the goblins' attention away from Hogsqueal and then flee, leading the goblins back to the troll. Jared convinces the troll to let them escape in return for leading the goblins to him to eat. After they arrive home, Simon convinces them to return to the now empty camp to release the rest of the goblins' victims and they take the injured griffin to the carriage house. After confronting their scared and angry mother, they discover that Thimbletack, enraged at Jared's forceful taking of the seeing stone, has again become a Boggart and reverted to his mischievous ways.
Plot Summary[]
When Jared is alone he goes up to his great-great-uncle Arthur Spiderwick's library and looks through the pages to Arthur's Field Guide to the Faerie World, he notices the house Brownie, Thimbletack, standing in one of the bookshelf's. Thimbletack jumps to the window and says that there are Goblins in the area. He says that they are by the gate, but Jared can't see anything. Suddenly, they see Simon, who has been calling for his cat, being dragged away by invisible beings. Jared panically asks what is happening, and Thimbletack replies: "I had forgotten, your eyes are rotten", before he points to a picture of a stone with a hole in it in the Guide. Thereafter, he disappears out in the corridor, and Jared has no other choice than to follow.
They run out to Mallory who has a headset and didn't notice Simon's disappearance. When Jared says that Simon has been abducted, Mallory starts calling for him. Jared tells her to be quiet, and they run after Thimbletack into the carriage house. They look through several boxes until they find an odd monocle, who has once belonged to Arthur Spiderwick. Thimbletack shows them the Seeing Stone used to see into the Invisible World. But he denies giving them the stone, even when Jared promises to give it back after they have used it. It leads to Jared trying to take the Stone by violence, which makes Thimbletack turn into a Boggart, who flees.
Jared looks out the window through the Stone, seeing that the Goblins are headed right to the carriage house. Mallory says that they need to get into the house. When Jared and Mallory run over the lawn, the Goblins catch up with Jared and make him fall. The Stone fall out from his grip, and Jared feels that he is being dragged backwards. Mallory is almost by the door to the house, but she turns around and runs back to save her brother. Some of the Goblins attack her, but she can't hit them with her rapier as she cannot see them. Jared breaks free and shouts where the creatures are by saying "Six o' clock", "Twelve o' clock" and so on. The Goblins surround the two kids but circle more cautiously. Then, a strange call, like "a cross between a bark and a whistle" is heard, and the Goblins rush into the forest north of the Estate. Mallory helps Jared put the Stone in the monocle, before they follow into the woods.
After they have walked for a while along a stream, Jared discovers a small group of Sprites looking down on them from the top of a tree. One of the tiny Faeries fly down and land on Jared's hand, and he stares almost mesmerized on it, until Mallory asks why does he "have that stupidtion of the Goblins on the ground. Jared says that he probably screams all the time and that the Goblins will probably ignore him. Hogsqueal screams, and Jared change his mind and tells him that if the Goblins catch Jared, no one will come and rescue the Hob. Hogsqueal become quiet. Then, Jared sees his twin brother sitting in another cage. He climbs out to rescue Simon, and ignores when Hogsqueal threatens to scream again. When Simon is released, Jared climbs to release Hogsqueal as well, and when Simon asks what's in the cage, the Hob offers them to spit in their eyes as Hobgoblin spit can give you the Sight. When Jared and Simon have rubbed their eyes with a napkin that has been spit on, they see the Goblins waiting for a captured, wounded Griffin to die. Simon becomes terrified and shouts toward them to leave the Griffin alone, which leads to the Goblins surrounding the tree. Jared quickly releases Hogsqueal, who flees. Suddenly, the Grace twins see the Hob eating the Goblins' food, urinating at their campfire and shouting insults.
Table of Contents[]
- List of Full-Page Illustrations
- Letter from Holly Black
- Letter from the Grace kids
- Map of the Spiderwick Estate and Surrounding Areas
- Chapter One: IN WHICH More Than a Cat Goes Missing
- Chapter Two: IN WHICH Several Things Are Taken, Including a Test
- Chapter Three: IN WHICH Mallory Finally Gets to Put Her Rapier to Good Use
- Chapter Four: IN WHICH Jared and Mallory Find Many Things, but Not What They're Looking For
- Chapter Five: IN WHICH the Fate of the Missing Cat Is Discovered
- Chapter Six: IN WHICH Jared Is Forced to Make a Difficult Choice
- Chapter Seven: IN WHICH Simon Outdoes Himself and Finds an Extraordinary New Pet
- About Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black