Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi - The Nixie's Song (Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1)

Compared to the original Spiderwick Chronicles, I think this one was a bit of a disappointment. The two main leads in this -- Nick and Laurie -- are not very likeable and verge on annoying for me. The nixie that they save is creepy and seems to be just as capable of inflicting harm on the kids as the giant. The 'cameo' by the authors in the book felt misplaced and did nothing for the story. I suspect they must have thought it very clever at the time but I certainly didn't think so, espeically when they presented themselves as frauds in the book and not really the experts on the faerie world. For me, that joke didn't work but backfired instead. The illustrations have always been great and they remain so in The Nixie's Song; I just wish the story-telling was better. I will still check out the next book when it comes out just to see what happens, but at this stage, I'm not expecting much!