Web making at its best! (The Very Busy Spider - Eric Carle)

Member Name: tb4ms

Product:	The Very Busy Spider - Eric Carle
Date:	27/04/07 (1117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fabulous educational children's picture book.

Disadvantages: None

I use this book with young children when studying minibeasts. It's great for showing how the spider builds up a web, which yes can be seen in non-fiction books but this book holds the children's attention and they demonstrate a greater interest in this storybook.
I have the boardbook which is a little too small for a large group of children but it's great on a 1:1 basis or small group situation as the silky thread of the web can be felt as it is slightly raised in the book and it has a lovely silver sheen to it!!

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The story
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Why is the spider so busy?
The story begins early one morning when the wind blew and the spider landed on a fence near a farm yard. She then begins to spin a web on the fence 'with her silky thread'.

A horse comes over and says:
"Neigh! Neigh! Want to go for a ride?"
But the spider didn't answer. She was very busy spinning her web.

A cow then comes over and says:
"Moo! Moo! Want to eat come grass?"

But yes you guessed it the spider didn't answer as she was to busy spinning her web.

The story continues with different farm animals coming over to the spider trying to entice her in to other activities: a sheep, a goat, a pig, a dog, a cat and a duck.

Finally a rooster comes over and asks if the spider wants to catch a fly and she catches one in her now finished web.

At night, an owl comes over and asks who built the beautiful web. The spider didn't answer as she had fallen asleep, it had been such a busy day!

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The style
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Very simple style with a lot of repetitive text so that children are able to join in with the 'chant' of:
"The spider didn't answer. She was very busy spinning her web.

Young children will also love joining in with the animal sounds which are encouraged in this book, be prepared for lots of noise if doing this with a large group.

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Illustrations
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An award winning illustrator, Eric Carle certainly doesn't disappoint with the illustrations in this book, they are superb!

Each double page has a drawing of the animal talking to the spider, with a small fly flying around. The adjacent page has a picture of the fence with the different stages of the web, from one simple silky thread to a complex web at the end of the book.

As stated earlier, my boardbook has a 'feely' web, great for young children.

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Educational value
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Most of Eric Carle's books have an educational value and this is certainly no exception.

The repetitive text encourages children's memory as does trying to sequence the different animals that talk to the spider.

Very young children are shown how a web is made in simplistic terms and learn that spider's webs are made from silk and are sticky, thereby able to catch flies for the spider to eat.

Carle uses a lot of punctuation in this book: speech marks, exclamation marks, full stops and apostrophes so depending on the age of the child, different aspects of punctuation can be discussed if required.

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Price & Types of book
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ISBN: 0-241-13590-7

My boardbook cost £4.99 some years ago and is still in great condition.
Check out www.amazon.co.uk for the following offers on used and new books of the same title:
Boardbook ~ from just 23p
Hardcover ~ from 15p
Paperback ~ from £1

There is also 'My very own busy spider colouring book' available.


Check out www.eric-carle.com for more info on his other fantastic books, e.g.
Papa please get the moon for me?
What's for lunch?
The very clumsy click beetle

Summary: Yet another brilliant book by Eric Carle