The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howlitt and Tony DiTerlizzi

Howitt, M. and T. DiTerlizzi, illustrator (2002).  The Spider and the Fly.  New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.  ISBN: 0-689-85289-4

Annotation

This picturebook combines illustrations based on classic Hollywood horror movies of the 1920s and 1930s with a Victorian cautionary poem written by Mary Howitt in 1829.

My thoughts

This Caldecott Honors book is a hauntingly beautiful tale. A sinister looking spider tries to convince an innocent looking fly to enter his parlor.  In one of the earlier publications of the original poem, William Bennett wrote, “Unfortunately, as long as there’s dishonesty in the world, there will be people ready to lay trap for us. We must learn to recognize them and guard against their wiles. Not everyone who talk sweetly offers sweets.” The book explains the consequences for believing flattering words of strangers. Knowing to be skeptical is a difficult issue to approach with young children. This book makes this complicated conversion easier with the personified Spider and Fly. I enjoyed this book.  I loved how it has recycled a classic piece of literature and I especially love the illustrations.

Focus on artwork:

The illustrations are fantastic. Inspired by 1920s and 1930 dark Hollywood, the cinematic effect that accentuate the details of the story. In the author’s information he credits his inspiration to come from Hollywood film noir as well as illustrations from Edward Gorey, Chaz Addams, and Arthur Rackham. The influence of these artists is evident and this book is recommended for fans of these classic illustrators.

There were many things that I liked about the illustrations. One is the way that DiTerlizzi illustrates the spider and fly. Another nice detail is the spider’s web. Throughout the story, the spider’s web is included from a few strands in the beginning to the final web. The web is finished with the story making it a nice marker. The ghosts that are seen as cautionary figures throughout the story also stand out. For the ghosts, Tony DiTerlizzi used Adobe Photoshop to add the graphic drawn ghosts as a transparent layer which gives them a luminous effect.

Lesson Plan

See 'Lesson Plan' page

Literary devices

Use of Rhyme: “So he wove a subtle web in a little corner sly,/ And set his table ready, to dine upon the fly.”

Use of Rhythm: “Oh no, no,” said the little Fly. “to ask me is in vain,/ For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.” There is a sense of rhythm and beats in the couplets of this poem.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Age 6-10

Reviews and Awards

Caldecott Honors, 2003

ALA Notable Children’s Books, 2003

Author website: No author website.

Illustrator website: http://diterlizzi.com

Media: Lamp Black and Titanium White Holbein Acryla Gouache and Berol Prismacolor Pencil on Thrathmore 5-Ply, Plate Bristol board and reproduced in silver and black duotone.  Ghosts were created using graphite and then added as a transparent layer using Adobe Photoshop.   (Information retrieved from the copyright page.)

Genre: Juvenile picture book

Ubiquitous by Joyce Sidman and Beckie Prange

Sidman, J., & Prange, B. (2010). Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors. Boston [Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN: 0618717196.

Annotation

Joyce Sidman combines poetry and science to examine some of the oldest living evolutionary survivors on Earth. Ubiquitous celebrates these survivors’ unique traits.

My thoughts

Ubiquitous means “somewhere that is (or seems to be) everywhere at the same time. Given that these species are prevalent and exist all over the world many of them are overlooked or assumed to be simple. This book reveals that these prevalent species are anything but simple. They are survivors for certain reasons and while this may seem mysterious, Joyce Sidman writes about some of the unique traits of these species that have made it easier for these species to survive.

This book highlights these special adaptive species and celebrates their unique traits for informational blocks, poetry, and detailed illustrations. Key pieces of information make this book interesting for children for example“…it is said that industrious squirrels plant more trees than humans do.” Crows have been “observed dropping large nuts at highway intersections so that passing cars will crack them open!” “Geckos can literally break their tail in two to escape from predators.”

The timeline in the beginning of the book is probably one of the better Earth timelines that I’ve seen for awhile. It really puts time into perspective. A mass of lines wind around each other like a giant fingerprint and spread across the inside cover and title page. For the scale, each centimeter represents one million years. It begins with Earth’s birth at 4.6 billion years. Humans, only come into the picture at the end of the timeline.

The prints are also creative and appropriate. Everything blends seamlessly.

 These are an impressive set of poems that tribute our planet’s survivors.

Curricular connections

Elementary school science- Biology

Students can reenact this timeline and bring their own timeline into the class using a 46 meters long string and cards to label the key events. Different colored string can be tied together to represent the different geologic periods.

Lesson Plan
See 'Lesson Plan' page

Literary devices

Use of Rhythm

First Life

(a diamante)

Bacteria

Ancient, tiny

Teeming, mixing, melding

Strands curled like ghostly hands

Winking, waving, waking

First, miraculous life

Use of Allusion

“… I am Sheath-wing, beloved of ancients. You have never seen armor like mine. As the sun-god rolls his blazing disk overheard, so I roll my perfect sphere of dung across the sands.” – Alluding to the Egyptians and the Sun-God Ra.

“Who swirled your whorls and ridges? Was it the shy gray wizard shuttered inside you? I hear he walks on one foot and wears a magic mantle, trailing stars. O shell, if only I could shrink! I’d climb your bristled back, slide down the spiral of your heart. I’d knock on your tiny door and ask to meet the mollusk that made you.”

Use of Sophisticated language

Adaptability, diamante, diverse, mutate, photosynthesis, prolific, organism, ubiquitous.

Reading level/ Interest Age

Age 6 and up.

Reviews and Awards

Awards and Honors: Starred reviews in Booklist, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Horn Book; Junior Library Guild Selection; Publisher's Weekly, Best Books of the Year; Washington Post, Best Books of the Year; Kirkus, Best Books of the Year; School Library Journal, Best Books of the Year; National Science Teachers Association/Children's Book Council, Outstanding Science Trade Books, K-12, 2011; Boston Globe, Top Ten Children's Books of 2010; New York Public Library's "100 Best Books"; Booklist, Top 10 Sci-Tech for Youth; Book Links, Lasting Connections for 2010; Finalist for the 2011 CYBILS Poetry Award; Association for Library Service to Children Notable Children's Book; The John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers

Author website: www.joycesidman.com/

Illustrator website: http://www.beckieprange.com/

Media: linocuts, hand-colored with watercolor

Genre: nonfiction, poetry

How the Sphinx Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

Hartland, Jessie. How the Sphinx got to the Museum. Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2010. Print. ISBN: 978-1609050320.

Annotation

Chorus like description of how the Sphinx of Hatshepsut got to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

My thoughts

The San Francisco De Young had a Hatshepsut exhibit some time ago and learned about the infamous Stepson. When I saw this book, I was immediately interested even without knowing what the book was about. It had mention of Hatshepsut and that was enough for me. It did end up as an interesting story about how the Sphinx of Hatshepsut got to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. I found it to not be what I expected, but it was an educational cumulative piece that answers the questions that many museum goer’s ask. “How did it get here?” A bonus to the educational function of this book is that it is a great nonfiction read-aloud with its fun chorus and chant like text. Children will enjoy participation with the text and the repetition will help children learn and memorize the who’s and what’s of this piece and museum procurement. Jessie Hartland includes a page of “More History” and a page of “Additional Facts and Figures” to add more information and background to the story of the Sphinx.

Focus on Artwork

Jessie Hartland’s consistent style is childlike and cheerful. The simple pictures allow the readers/listeners to focus on the text. The titles of the people are all uniquely collaged with different font types that add a bit of fun to the repetition. The illustrations look like they have been colored with marker in an expressive manner without focuses on line clarity. The people are illustrated in vague cartoonlike ways and are identifiable by clothing and geographic location.

Literary devices

Use of Repetition: The docent retells the many steps and people who contributed to the sphinx's story each time a new part is introduced in a kind of chorus. “Hatshepsut commissioned, the sculptors sculpted, the priests admired it, and the stepson had it destroyed.” The story continues with it being rediscovered centuries later in a pit by an archaeologist, brought to America, and restored. Each time ending with the start of the sphinx’s story and how it was “ordered by the pharaoh.”

 Use of Rhythm: The chorus of people who helped bring the sphinx is rhythmic like “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.”

Reading level/ Interest Age

Grade 1 and up.

Reviews and Awards

Starred reviews.

Author website: www.jessiehartland.com/

Media: collage and markers

Genre: Juvenile picture book