Horror, In Pint Sizes

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Odd things happen to oddball kids who run in threes. Harry (as in Potter), Hermione and Ron endure all manner of spooky events at Hogwarts. Violet, Klaus and Sunny, better known as the Baudelaire orphans of the Lemony Snicket books, have dodged headless men and giant pinching machines.

Now the Grace kids, Mallory, Jared and Simon, are the latest tyro trio to find themselves entangled in creepy adventures. Especially after a busted marriage forces them to move from the city into a ramshackle Victorian manse. Mallory's hair gets mysteriously knotted to the headboard of her bed. Simon's tadpoles are frozen into an ice-cube tray. Blame seems to rest on Jared, until he uncovers a strange book, a field guide to faeries that identifies the culprits. Turns out faeries are not all Tinkerbell types; the genus encompasses goblins, hobgoblins, brownies, trolls, ogres, dwarfs and sprites, some of them quite intemperate.

Quaintly illustrated, but with plenty of modern childhood trauma, The Spiderwick Chronicles (Simon & Schuster) are aimed at kids too young for Lemony. Authors Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi even make like Snicket creator Daniel Handler on book tours, playing coy about authorship. Sales magic seems to be afoot, at least; The Field Guide and The Seeing Stone, the first two volumes of the Chronicles, hit the New York Times children's best-seller list the week of their release.

And why not? The books wallow in their dusty Olde Worlde charm: Faeries! Dumbwaiters! Attics! But then, reading has an old-fashioned charm too.