Spectacular Spiders (Linda Glaser's Classic Creatures) - Softcover

Award-winning author Linda Glaser is the author of many books for children including Hoppy Hanukkah! and Mrs. Greenberg's Messy Hanukkah. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota. www.lindaglaserauthor.com

PreSchool-Grade 2-A young girl admires the work of a garden spider living in her backyard and describes its physical and behavioral characteristics. Focusing on the arachnid's use of spider silk, she tells how it constructs a web to catch insects, employs a "dragline" to escape predators, and securely wraps its prey and its eggs in silk. A six-page appendix, in question-and-answer format, offers snippets of miscellaneous information about spider anatomy, habitats, natural enemies, lifespan, and special characteristics of 13 different species. Realistic, colored-pencil drawings in pastel hues appear on every page, and are nicely varied in size and placement. They show the spider in its garden habitat and convey the beauty of nature. The text, in comparison, is merely adequate. While clearly written and logically organized, its style is uneven-bits of rhyme are mixed in with straightforward prose. Faith McNulty's The Lady and the Spider (HarperCollins, 1986) is a smoothly written, realistic story about a crab spider that is accidentally taken indoors on a head of lettuce and is rescued, in the nick of time, by the protagonist. Gail Gibbons's Spiders (Holiday, 1993) is a good nonfiction introduction to a wide variety of species for younger readers. Glaser's Spectacular Spiders is a serviceable additional title.
Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library
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