Once I Knew a Spider
By Jennifer Owings Dewey; Jean Cassels (Illustrator)
(Walker Books for Young Readers, Hardcover, 9780802787002, 32pp.)
Publication Date: April 2002
Other Editions of This Title: Library Binding
Categories: Animals - Insects Spiders etc.
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One day a spider appeared on the window ledge outside the glass. Right away she began to spin a web.
Thus begins an inspiring true story—a story of an expectant mother who develops an unexpected relationship with the spider that makes a home outside her window. As the summer and the mother's pregnancy progress, the spider is beginning its own circle of life. From its first graceful web, to its creation of a delicate egg sac, the spider lives through the fall season, and what should be the end of its life. But by a small miracle of nature, the orb weaver endures the snow and the winter, and stays with her eggs until spring.
This gentle story with strikingly detailed illustrations reveals the exceptional magic in the everyday world, and how it can touch our lives. The parallel stories of the human mother and the spider show how stopping to observe nature can allow you to witness everyday miracles. Additional in-depth information on spiders is included in an afterword.
Jennifer Owings Dewey has written and/or illustrated forty-five books for children. Her love of the wilderness has led her to focus on creating books on natural history. Among her award-winning titles are Wildlife Rescue: The Work of Kathleen Ramsay and Mud Matters: Stories from a Mud Lover. A mother of four grown children, and grandmother of four, she teaches drawing and writing to teenagers in her hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jean Cassels has illustrated more than fifty natural history books for children, but she also has a talent for more whimsical images of birds and beasts and bugs wearing all the latest fashions, as seen in The Mysterious Collection of Dr. David Harleyson. The mother of two grown sons, she lives with her husband in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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