Diary of a Spider - Hardcover

Cronin, Doreen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0545242916 ISBN 13: 9780545242912

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2005

Synopsis

This is the diary ... of a spider.

But don't be worried – he's more scared of you and your gigantic shoe! Actually, he's a lot like you. He goes to gym class and has Grandparents' Day at school. But he also spins sticky webs, scales walls, and takes wind–catching lessons. Lucky for him, his best friend is a fly!

Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss, the team behind the #1 bestselling Diary Of A Worm, spin a hilarious tale about the upside–down web world of an eight–legged charmer and his unlikely friend, Fly.

About this title

About the Author

Doreen Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of Diary of a Worm Diary of a Spider; as well as Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, a Caldecott Honor Book; and Giggle, Giggle, Quack. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and their daughters.

Reviews

PreSchool-Grade 3–Children who enjoyed Diary of a Worm (HarperCollins, 2003) will be enchanted by this artistic team's latest collaboration. This time, Spider is the star. Through his humorous diary entries, readers learn about typical events in the life of a young spider. When Spider's mom tells him he's getting too big for his skin, he molts. Fly's feelings are hurt by a thoughtless comment from Daddy Longlegs, and Spider tries to help. He is concerned that he will have to eat leaves and rotten tomatoes when he has a sleepover with Worm. Spider's school doesn't have fire drills; it has vacuum drills (…vacuums eat spiderwebs and are very, very dangerous). Grampa tells him that spider-fly relations have improved over the years and shares the secret of long life–don't fall asleep in shoes. The amusing pen-and-ink and watercolor cartoons, complete with funny asides in dialogue balloons, expand the sublime silliness of some of the scenarios.–Beverly Combs, Webb Middle School, Garland, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Starred Review. Cronin and Bliss repeat the comic ingredients that made Diary of a Worm so successful in this rib-tickling sequel. This time the diary is written by Worm's friend Spider and filled with similar verbal high jinks, deadpan humor and visual jokes that offer readers a whimsical glimpse of the world from a small creature's point of view. Endpapers feature photos of Spider's family as well as his favorite book (Charlotte's Web), his discovery of a "neat sculpture!" (a toilet bowl) and a playbill from his school's production of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (a review blurb by Worm says, "You'll dig this play"). Children will relate to the book's droll humor, as when Spider goes to the park with his sister ("We tried the seesaw. It didn't work") or when he takes his molted skin for show-and-tell. A slight story line about the tension between Spider's friendship with Fly and his Grampa's prejudice against all six-legged bugs threads together the amusing vignettes. (When Grampa says, "Without spiders, insects could take over the world," Bliss features a menacing alien bug as President of the United States.) This endearing book delivers a gentle message that comes through when Spider muses, "I wish that people wouldn't judge all spiders based on the few spiders that bite. I know if we took the time to get to know each other, we would get along just fine. Just like me and Fly." Ages 4-8. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0545242916
• ISBN 13: 9780545242912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Bliss Harry
• Number of pages: 40