THE LADY AND THE SPIDER by Faith McNulty

Now this is a book I could identify with. This is the story of a small spider whom makes it home in a head of lettuce in a lady’s garden. The story is by Faith McNulty and the art by Bob Marstall. The book explains the spider taking up residence in this wonderful green world. We find the spider eating and drinking as spiders will. Do not be put off by this as there is nothing graphic, and lets face it, it is in the nature of spiders to eat insects! All the while the lady is working daily in her garden. One day…its lunch time! The lady picks the head of lettuce which the spider has made its home. She is preparing a salad!

The pastels used by the artist are mellow, highly accurate and done in what I call a semi-realistic style. They are extremely relaxing to view. The text fits the illustrations perfectly and is very well written.

This little book has a lot going for it. First, it teaches the child compassion (the lady does not eat the spider, or scream and stomp on it as so often done, rather she returns it to her garden and another head of lettuce). The lesson as to the nature of spiders is great. These wonderful small creatures are given a bad rap by many, but this work helps clear the way about a lot of misconceptions. It teaches the children how each creature, including humans can and do fit into our ecosystem and, as I said, it teaches compassion.

I loved this story. Truth be told, when I find a spider or other critter in the house, I almost always gently capture it and return it to the wild. For me personally, the book was sort of spooky, in a good way, as the lady featured in the book looks amazingly like my wife.

This one is great not only for the small ones, but also those up to around eight years old. There is enough in the text and enough in the illustrations to keep the child’s interest through many readings. This one has been kid tested, several times, and they all approve of it.

Considerations :::
We found two conflicting AR numbers for Lady and the Spider. The first was 3.6 and the second was 2.9. The Accelerated Reading (AR) designation indicates the level of the vocabulary, the first number indicating the grade level, the second digit meaning the month of the school year. In this case you'll have to think of the book as being in a range. It can be read aloud to any age.


Lady and the Spider
by Faith Mcnulty, Bob Marstall (Illustrator)

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• ISBN-10: 0064431525
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