Berlin parodies the preschool-standard "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" for slightly older picture-book crowds. The Hugely-Wugely Spider struggles to jam himself into the waterspout, but his rotund figure proves useful when he rescues his itsy-bitsy brethren from a deluge. With lots of exclamations ("HUGELY-WUGELY to the rescue! Time to plug this spout!"), equally energetic art, and a final irreverent update to the source rhyme, this is storytime gold.

A gigantic spider saves their itsy-bitsy friends in this hilarious twist on an old fingerplay.Cute, fuzzy, pastel spiders Itsy-Bitsy, Mitsy-Bitsy, Litsy-Plitsy, and Witsy-Ditsy all climb up the waterspout. "I could climb up the waterspout if I wanted to!" insists the Hugely-Wugely Spider, "Which I don't!" Then they try to squeeze in (no easy task—they are huge, after all) only to rebuffed by the tiny spiders, who put up a sign saying "You must be at least this itsy-bitsy to climb up the waterspout." But as millions of children and adults know, "down comes the rain," threatening to "wash the spiders out." In the spirit of Rudolph and Tacky the Penguin, the Hugely-Wugely Spider plugs up the waterspout with their ample body, enduring the rain and accumulated muck from the gutters, until the sun comes out "and dried up all the rain" ("No! I dried up all the rain! The sun didn't do anything," argues the Hugely-Wugely Spider. "It's true," agrees the sun). The story concludes with an updated version of the famous song crediting the heroism of the Hugely-Wugely Spider, who is rewarded with "heaps and heaps of adorable leg warmers to keep all of my adorable legs perfectly warm!" Edwards' scratchy, cartoon illustrations take the premise and ably amp up the humor.With remarkably appealing spiders showing energy and emotion on every page, this clever, well-paced story is sure to appeal to children with a taste for zany, self-referential humor. (Picture book. 5-8)