Eleven year old Nick isn’t happy that his father remarried following his mother’s death, and particularly doesn’t like having to spend time with his new step-sister Laurie. Laurie lugs around a huge book about faeries, and Nick thinks she’s just wacky. Laurie doesn’t care much what anyone thinks of her, though she’s disappointed that having a real brother doesn’t live up to the ideal she had pictured for herself.

Then one day Nick finds a four-leaf-clover which allows him and Laurie to see things they never could before: faeries are real, and they can cause real trouble, too.

When Nick and Laurie are called to defend the people close to them they learn to think more about others. They see the selfish and fickle faeries and realise how awful it is to live that way. They even manage to get Nick’s older brother (whose only concerns were surfing and his girlfriend) to help.

Spiderwick’s simple adventure fantasy with line illustrations throughout is suited to reluctant chapter book readers who are not yet ready for complex stories.