A Web
A Web
Select a format:
Publisher's Hardcover ©2018--
To purchase this item, you must first login or register for a new account.
Pureplay Press
Annotation: From New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book artist Isabelle Simler, a picture book (and nature guide!) to linge... more
Genre: [Animal fiction]
 
Reviews: 5
Catalog Number: #278843
Format: Publisher's Hardcover
Publisher: Pureplay Press
Copyright Date: 2018
Edition Date: 2018 Release Date: 10/01/18
Pages: 1 volume (unpaged)
ISBN: 1-441-32843-2
ISBN 13: 978-1-441-32843-4
Dewey: E
LCCN: 2018015651
Dimensions: 22 x 31 cm
Language: English
Reviews:
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Starred Review Simler's text consists of only one short and one long sentence, but it accomplishes much in instructing readers on the finer aspects of the natural world. The right-hand pages continue the narrative, while on the left, labeled samples of that double spread's topic are shown. Lovely, soft-hued and textured illustrations offer elaborate details of insects, leaves, seeds, feathers, and pebbles, placed over a white background for maximum effect. Pale shadows beneath some items and insects give more depth to the beautiful renderings and enable the object to hover above the page. Slyly incorporated into the illustrations are glimpses of the long spindly legs and plump round body of a black spider. The arachnid is described as a "skillful, watchful artist" that slowly decorates its web with many of the aforementioned insects and objects. Cleverly, the last two pages appear to be the same illustration, but reveal a dragonfly in place of a helicopter, butterflies instead of flowers, and flying insects as substitutes for seagulls. Front and back endpapers are different and show delicate monochromatic hatch and crosshatch drawings of spider webs, plants, and insects. Here is an easily accessible introduction to nature for young children and a lovely homage to a creature often met with fear.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

While reading this quietly stunning nature book, readers are encouraged to slow down and observe the minute details of the natural world from the viewpoint of a spider. The spider's black legs make a stark contrast to the meticulously detailed seeds, thorns, bugs, feathers, and leaves (all identified by name) that grace the pages, culminating finally with the spider herself in her intricate web.

Kirkus Reviews

Simler (Plume, 2017) presents a seemingly guileless visual inventory of nature's minutiae, but a spider's surreptitious, side-by-side activity conveys a more mysterious subtext in this French import."In nature there is much to see, if you look closely." A stylized oceanside scene—trees and flowers in the foreground, boats sailing, gulls flying, a shark swimming—seems idyllic enough. "You may find… / …leaves, / catkins and seeds," and so much more. Simler invites readers to pore over exquisitely rendered natural elements, including multiple spreads of insects. Each creature, flower, or thorny stem appears against white space on the left, labeled with its common name. Each right-hand page features a close-up of the spider—often glimpsed only in part—interacting with one or more of these objects or critters. She's making off with a fern frond, an emerald-hued shield bug, an acorn cap, even some pebbles—but why? The puzzle's solved as Simler reveals "a web, / and a skillful, watchful artist… / …weaving a delicate masterpiece." Readers see each captured element suspended in the web, carefully arrayed to replicate the seascape introduced at the outset. A thorn's the shark's fin; nutshells stuck with feathers are sailboats. The allegorical denouement (the spider's an "artist" rather than a predatory arachnid) feels manipulative, counteracting the relative verisimilitude with which Simler approaches her natural catalog. Visually stunning, and meta, sorta, but ultimately discordant. (Picture book. 4-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In finely detailed spreads resembling specimen boards, Simler identifies the insects, leaves, seeds, and other organic matter that a spindly black spider might capture in its web. Simler-s delicate depictions of the spider shift from naturalistic to almost ethereal. In one spread, the spider-s legs emerge from the bud of a white lily; elsewhere, the arachnid is seen transporting pebbles, twigs, nuts, and seeds, a single thorn delicately balanced on one leg. At last, the web is unveiled, and the spider-s bulbous form dangles bluntly like an abstract Halloween decoration while the accumulated treasures appear trapped in the web-s strands. It may be a gruesome fate for the prey, but readers will surely admire the -delicate masterpiece- created by both the storyteller and her subject. Ages 3-8. (Oct.)

School Library Journal (Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

PreS-Gr 3 Asking readers to look closely, Simler demonstrates the connectedness of all things in the natural world through the activities of a collector. This album offers gorgeous, precise, and sometimes labeled images of leaves, catkins, seeds and nuts, and many insects collectively called "bugs." There are flowers, butterflies and moths, twigs, thorns, flying insects, feathers, pebbles and a web containing an eight-eyed "skillful, watchful artist/weaving a delicate masterpiece." As she did in Plume , the author/illustrator invites readers to search each page for parts of the spider. A final pair of spreads shows the spider's collection and the corresponding natural world scene. First published in France in 2013, this translation lacks the laser-cut next-to-last page of the original, which drew more attention to what the spider was doing. The translation, too, is sometimes surprisingly loose: for example, instead of an insect's name, the phrase "even more bugs" for a page showing an (unidentified in English) cicada opposite one showing a variety of (identified) insects. These changes may lessen the impact but the whole effect is an extraordinary appreciation of attention to small things in one's world. The fine-lined, digitally created images are set off from the plain white background by unobtrusive shadows. After the detail of each image, the abstraction of the landscape is particularly intriguing. VERDICT For preschool and early elementary school children, this is a glorious invitation to observe the natural world. A fine choice. Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD

Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)
Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal (Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)
Reading Level: 1.0
Interest Level: P-2

From New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book artist Isabelle Simler, a picture book (and nature guide!) to linger over. In nature, there is much to see. Look closely as a spider -- both a collector and an artist -- skillfully crafts a masterpiece from all that falls into her path. Patient and observant, she appreciates all the wonders that make up her landscape -- from ferns and feathers to bugs and butterflies. Readers will come back again and again to the luscious and intricate illustrations, soaking up all of Simler's delicate details. 48 pages. Picture book measures 12'' wide x 8-5/8'' high. Full color throughout. Sturdy hardcover binding with dust jacket. Isabelle Simler graduated from the Graduate School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg, France. She is the author and illustrator of several children's picture books, including Plume , which was selected by the New York Times as one of the Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2017. She lives and works in Paris.


*Prices subject to change without notice and listed in US dollars.
Perma-Bound bindings are unconditionally guaranteed (excludes textbook rebinding).
Paperbacks are not guaranteed.
Please Note: All Digital Material Sales Final.