The Very Busy Spider starts when a strong wind blows a spider from her web on a tree to a barnyard fence. The hard-working spider does not complain about bad luck, or ask other animals to catch flies for her. Instead, she immediately starts spinning a new web.
Then, animal after animal come by asking her to do something else. In each case, however, the spider doesn't reply. "She was very busy spinning her web," the story explains. By book's end, the spider has caught a fly and is sleeping soundly after a long day's work.
In working hard to achieve again what was lost, despite persistent pleas to do other things, the industrious spider is both enjoyable to read about and educational--without being preachy. Anyone looking for a children's book that shows the value of being virtuous should enjoy this book.
This one and The Very Hungry Caterpillar are my favorite young-child Eric Carle books (teaching numbers and days of the week and colors so endearingly takes skill). For older kids, I also like "Pancakes, Pancakes" which tells the story of a kid who wants pancakes for breakfast and has him get all the ingredients from the farm. The timeframe is squished since he takes the wheat and threshes and brings it to the miller just for the flour, but it's great for understanding the process and empowering a kid to address their needs and a perfect read before weekend pancakes (at least before my family got into paleo eating). I have lots of fond memories :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Lady Baker! Somebody else I know recommended The Very Hungry Caterpillar also, so I'll definitely be checking it out at some point.
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