A House Spider's Life

by John Himmelman

Illustrations and simple text describe the daily activities and life cycle of a house spider

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Picture Books

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Himmelman is the author and illustrator of more than sixty books for children, including Chickens to the Rescue. He lives in Connecticut with his family.

According John's Facebook page, he has been "making up stories and scribbling pictures since I could hold a crayon in my hand. It became my job in 1981, when my first book, "Talester the Lizard" was published during my last year in college (School of Visual Arts)....It behooves a writer to try and turn what interests them into their work. I've been fortunate to do that with my love of nature, with books - for adults and children - focusing on different natural history topics."

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, informative, and well drawn look at the life of a spider . . . set within the walls of your very own house. This is a realistic, nature-documentary-type book. The spiders do not talk, or attend tea parties. The narrative follows one spider - from youthful spiderling shenanigans to a lonely death in the corner of a bedroom ceiling. (Just like Charlotte, only no barnyard buddies.) Eating, skin shedding, mating, and egg-sac-making are all covered, though thankfully, not in great detail.

I'm an arachnophobe, though things are getting better. I can admire a spider from a distance of a few inches, and as long as they don't crawl on me, we can coexist. That said, this book would have scared the BEJEEZUS out of me when I was a kid.

This is recommended only to braver children who are fond of gross stuff and poking dead things with sticks. Why? Well, the last illustration in the book is the stuff of nightmares. It shows a sleeping child, on his back. A male spider perches on his pillow. The much larger female is hanging from a thread of silk . . . right above the child's open mouth.

Aieee!

Author, what on earth were you thinking? You spend a whole book convincing us that spiders are cool and nonscary, and then WHAMMO - you make us afraid to close our eyes at night. Tsk, tsk. You are a bad, bad man!

[Christine Calabrese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Presently school teachers are being encouraged to read non-fiction to their children. This book bridges the gap for little ones, it really is chockfull of information about spiders and vocabulary specific to spiders. I love this book and highly recommend it to both parents and teachers.