Miss Spider's Tea Party
by
David Kirk
book plus audio CD
Children's Fiction, ages 3-5
Everyone is afraid of spiders, but Miss Spider is a gentle, kind animal. When she invites other animals over they always refuse. Finally, Miss Spider is presented with an opportunity to help some others and there is a lovely ending to this book.
When I was listening to this in the car I kept thinking that something wasn't quite right about this book. Finally, I realized that it was because for years I have been reading the "Miss Spider: The Counting Book" board book. It is the same story, but condensed and arranged so the numbers 1 - 12 are prominent in order. I didn't even realize there WAS an original version that I had not read! Now it made sense.
Miss Spider's world is a sweet and polite place. There are other sweet and polite worlds such as Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony, but this world should appeal to preschool boys as well as girls, since Miss Spider is a bug after all. There is a Nickelodeon series featuring her world (Sunny Patch) and books are available from Scholastic. Books and videos are available at many public libraries.
http://www.nickjr.com/miss-spider/
http://www.scholastic.com/titles/missspider/books.htm
