This book completely surprised me. The cover made me think this would be quite a silly story about a funny spider but instead I discovered a story about persistence, patience and perseverance. These are indeed heavy topics but in Spiro this is all told with a light touch and tons of humour.
On the title page Sprio is reading a book - the title is Advanced Web Design. We are off to a good start.
Spiro needs food - a juicy fly or a scrumptious moth, or even a stink bug. I talked about this recently - did you notice I used the word (from the text) scrumptious. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to read heaps and heaps of the BEST picture books to our children - this might be the first time they hear the wonderful word - scrumptious. Then when your child says 'read it again' this word will gradually be one they use in their everyday life or if that seems to ambitious it will be word they recognise and understand.
Spiro builds his web but unfortunately ... well three times there are three disasters and Spiro misses his prey. I have a little spider like Spiro on my veranda. He builds his web and at night the lights from my windows attract various insects. This is exactly how Spiro succeeds - the family switch on the fairy lights they have draped over the apple tree and "the insects come swarming".
Spiro is a 2025 CBCA Early Childhood notable title. You can download some teachers notes from the publisher webpage. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything has a very useful Pinterest collection of other picture books about spiders - which of course would be a terrific mini theme for your preschool or kindy class. It would be great to talk about the design of Spiro's web and to compare this with photos of spider webs found in non fiction books in your library [595.79]. With a slightly older group this book could also open up a discussion about prey and predators - eat or be eaten!
A perfect book to share with preschoolers and children up to 7 years old. Reading Time
The CBCA 2025 Early Childhood Picture Book judges in their report about the Notable titles said: The blend of deadpan humour in the written text and slapstick in the illustrations is masterful.
If you are sharing this book with a young reading companion or in a school library or classroom you MUST also look for this wonderful Australian book about a spider who spins her web. In 1976 Aranea was a Picture Book of the Year commended title. I do wish the publishers would consider bringing it back into print - this year would be the perfect time because Aranea was published in 1975 - so this is the 50th Anniversary.
You could also share these books:
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