Miss Spider's Tea Party - Hardcover

David Kirk

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590190261 ISBN 13: 9780590190268

Publisher: Scholastic, 1996

Synopsis

"Miss Spider can't understand why insects flee in panic at her approach. Being a florivore herself, she only wants to invite them over for cakes and tea. The ironic air wafting through Kirk's rhymed tale will not be lost on young readers, and the insects in the big, brightly colored illustrations beear comically apprehensive expressions as they hastily depart . . . At last, Miss Spider is able to convince a rain-soaked moth of her good intentions . . . A sweet tale" --School Library Journal

About this title

About the Author

The uncommonly unique imagination of David Kirk has an equally uncommon source. "I found a small copy of The Gnomes' Almanac by a little-known Viennese author Ida Bohtta Morpugo. It was a cutout book simply subtitled: A Book for Children. In it, the pictures and verse about bugs, butterflies, and mice really came to life." That got him drawing and writing. Before that he made children's toys by hand. "I love making stories. The bookmaking process is a liberation for me from the years I toiled to produce handmade items. I think the life of a children's book author is bliss." Kirk lives in upstate New York, with his wife and three daughters.
For more information about David Kirk, visit: scholastic.com/tradebooks

From Booklist

Ages 4-8. Miss Spider eagerly waits for some guests to join her at tea, but because spiders are in the habit of eating their company, no one wants to join her. Espying her web, the fireflies hightail it, the ants ignore her, the beetles dash away. Nine moths, waiting out a thundershower, prefer to get wet. But one little moth is too soaked to take wing. A guest at last! Miss Spider wines him and dines him, and then, instead of dining on him, she sends him on his way, at the same time paving the way for lots of new friends to trust her hospitality. As far as the story goes, there's one fly in the ointment. If young kids don't know that spiders catch other insects in their web to eat them, they won't know why Miss Spider is shunned, especially since she seems so nice. It's easy to forgive flaws in the story (a prosaic rhyming text) because of the fabulous art. Featuring the clarity that comes with airbrushing, these in-your-face pictures are full of eye-popping colors and almost 3-D shapes. Kirk takes artistic license and introduces spiders that are yellow, bugs that are blue, and ants the color of maraschino cherries. This would be a fun one to read to groups. Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590190261
• ISBN 13: 9780590190268
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32