Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Simler's text consists of only one short and one long sentence, but it accomplishes much in instructing readers on the finer aspects of the natural world. The right-hand pages continue the narrative, while on the left, labeled samples of that double spread's topic are shown. Lovely, soft-hued and textured illustrations offer elaborate details of insects, leaves, seeds, feathers, and pebbles, placed over a white background for maximum effect. Pale shadows beneath some items and insects give more depth to the beautiful renderings and enable the object to hover above the page. Slyly incorporated into the illustrations are glimpses of the long spindly legs and plump round body of a black spider. The arachnid is described as a skillful, watchful artist that slowly decorates its web with many of the aforementioned insects and objects. Cleverly, the last two pages appear to be the same illustration, but reveal a dragonfly in place of a helicopter, butterflies instead of flowers, and flying insects as substitutes for seagulls. Front and back endpapers are different and show delicate monochromatic hatch and crosshatch drawings of spider webs, plants, and insects. Here is an easily accessible introduction to nature for young children and a lovely homage to a creature often met with fear.--Maryann Owen Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In finely detailed spreads resembling specimen boards, Simler identifies the insects, leaves, seeds, and other organic matter that a spindly black spider might capture in its web. Simler's delicate depictions of the spider shift from naturalistic to almost ethereal. In one spread, the spider's legs emerge from the bud of a white lily; elsewhere, the arachnid is seen transporting pebbles, twigs, nuts, and seeds, a single thorn delicately balanced on one leg. At last, the web is unveiled, and the spider's bulbous form dangles bluntly like an abstract Halloween decoration while the accumulated treasures appear trapped in the web's strands. It may be a gruesome fate for the prey, but readers will surely admire the "delicate masterpiece" created by both the storyteller and her subject. Ages 3-8. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-Asking readers to look closely, Simler demonstrates the connectedness of all things in the natural world through the activities of a collector. This album offers gorgeous, precise, and sometimes labeled images of leaves, catkins, seeds and nuts, and many insects collectively called "bugs." There are flowers, butterflies and moths, twigs, thorns, flying insects, feathers, pebbles and a web containing an eight-eyed "skillful, watchful artist.../...weaving a delicate masterpiece." As she did in Plume, the author/illustrator invites readers to search each page for parts of the spider. A final pair of spreads shows the spider's collection and the corresponding natural world scene. First published in France in 2013, this translation lacks the laser-cut next-to-last page of the original, which drew more attention to what the spider was doing. The translation, too, is sometimes surprisingly loose: for example, instead of an insect's name, the phrase "even more bugs" for a page showing an (unidentified in English) cicada opposite one showing a variety of (identified) insects. These changes may lessen the impact but the whole effect is an extraordinary appreciation of attention to small things in one's world. The fine-lined, digitally created images are set off from the plain white background by unobtrusive shadows. After the detail of each image, the abstraction of the landscape is particularly intriguing. -VERDICT For preschool and early elementary school children, this is a glorious invitation to observe the natural world. A fine choice.-Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
While reading this quietly stunning nature book, readers are encouraged to slow down and observe the minute details of the natural world from the viewpoint of a spider. The spider's black legs make a stark contrast to the meticulously detailed seeds, thorns, bugs, feathers, and leaves (all identified by name) that grace the pages, culminating finally with the spider herself in her intricate web. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Simler (Plume, 2017) presents a seemingly guileless visual inventory of nature's minutiae, but a spider's surreptitious, side-by-side activity conveys a more mysterious subtext in this French import."In nature there is much to see, if you look closely." A stylized oceanside scenetrees and flowers in the foreground, boats sailing, gulls flying, a shark swimmingseems idyllic enough. "You may find / leaves, / catkins and seeds," and so much more. Simler invites readers to pore over exquisitely rendered natural elements, including multiple spreads of insects. Each creature, flower, or thorny stem appears against white space on the left, labeled with its common name. Each right-hand page features a close-up of the spideroften glimpsed only in partinteracting with one or more of these objects or critters. She's making off with a fern frond, an emerald-hued shield bug, an acorn cap, even some pebblesbut why? The puzzle's solved as Simler reveals "a web, / and a skillful, watchful artist / weaving a delicate masterpiece." Readers see each captured element suspended in the web, carefully arrayed to replicate the seascape introduced at the outset. A thorn's the shark's fin; nutshells stuck with feathers are sailboats. The allegorical denouement (the spider's an "artist" rather than a predatory arachnid) feels manipulative, counteracting the relative verisimilitude with which Simler approaches her natural catalog. Visually stunning, and meta, sorta, but ultimately discordant. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
