Spiders
PreSchool-Grade 2-Gail Gibbons is well-known for her succinct, colorful treatment of numerous nonfiction topics. Spiders (Holiday House, 1993) is narrated by Suzanne Toren, whose mature, expressive voice carefully explains the page-turn signal (on one side) and that first the words at the bottom of the page will be read and then the words on the upper "picture" section of the page. Often the words on the pictures are labels, followed by the phonetic pronunciations, which are read more slowly and emphatically. Young readers will find the reading of the labels helpful, though nonreaders may be confused about just which item is which. Listeners are advised that most spiders don't hurt people, but youngsters may not have enough description of the black widow, which "can kill people," to prevent them from being frightened by any small black spider. Though not Gibbons' best work, her bright illustrations and simple text, pleasantly presented in read-along form, should be welcomed by budding entomologists.Fritz Mitnick, Shaler North Hills Library, Glenshaw, PACopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.