CM Magazine: Little Miss Spider.

________________ CM . . . . Volume VII Number 10 . . . . January 19, 2001

Little Miss Spider.

David Kirk.
New York, NY: Scholastic Press (Distributed in Canada by Scholastic Canada), 1999.
32 pp., cloth, $18.99.
ISBN 0-439-08389-3.

Subject Headings:
Spiders-Fiction.
Insects-Fiction.
Mother and child-Fiction.

Preschool - grade 2 / Ages 4 - 7.

Review by Joan Payzant.

**** /4

excerpt:

Little Miss Spider
Popped out of her egg.
Swinging down from a thread,
She hung by one leg.
Watching brothers and sisters
All scooting for cover,
She dangled there wondering,
"Where is my mother?"

Little Miss Spider is a Cadillac of a book, a first-class presentation in every way. In addition to being hard-covered and having a striking cover illustration, every other page is full coloured, with little creatures that seem three-dimensional, as though you could lift them off the paper and hold them in your hands.

Pert four-line rhyming verses tell of Little Miss Spider's adventurous search for her mother. A surprising twist at the end of the story lifts it out of the usual happy ending, into an unusual, but still satisfactory one. Young readers will have a chance to suggest other endings and perhaps make up an alternate verse or two to illustrate their ideas for concluding the story to their satisfaction.

David Kirk has written seven books about Little Miss Spider, and, as proof of their popularity, they are printed in seven different languages.

For schools, public libraries, and for bedtime reading at home.

Highly Recommended.

Joan Payzant is a former teacher-librarian of Dartmouth, NS.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - January 19, 2001.