Fear was my gateway to becoming interested in stories. My nanny growing up, a Scottish expat named Jackie with a fox pelt of red hair and a manic...
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Readers can count from one to twelve with the beloved Miss Spider as she looks for insect friends to play with. Based on David Kirk's celebrated picture book, "Miss Spider's Tea Party, " this vibrant board book is made with the most durable board for little hands. Full-color illustrations.
Kirk has studied painting for more than twenty years, starting in junior high school. A graduate of the Cleveland Art Institute, his bold palette and unique style are influenced by everything from nineteenth century academic painting to 1930s animation. Mr. Kirk lives in upstate New York with his wife, Kathy, and his daughters, Violet, Primrose, and Wisteria.
annalovesbooks, September 17, 2008 (view all comments by annalovesbooks)
ISBN 059006519x - Usually, when I come across a board book with a spectacularly illustrated cover, I'm let down when I open it up. David Kirk is absolutely fantastic and so, it turns out, is every single page inside.
Miss Spider would like to play, but all the other bugs are afraid of her. Rhyming text counts the bugs, from the two beetles who ran away to the eleven bugs who finally came to visit - bringing twelve flowers as gifts.
It's great, the chance to work on numbers with your child, but for me the illustrations are what knocks it out of the park. The details are excellent: the reflection in the teapot and the twelve cupcakes when her eleven bugs come to visit, for example. The colors are vivid and the images nearly 3D. Board book pages are sturdy and can take a bit of a beating. My single complaint is that the cover board seems to be coated with a rubbery plastic layer which peels fairly easily. The bugs aren't particularly creepy or scary, which works for me - I've got a shortage of Halloween-themed board books and this one is going to fill in. I hardly think anyone will mind!
- AnnaLovesBooks
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