ALA Booklist

Egielski offers up a bright, whimsical pop-up version of many a child's first learned nursery rhyme: "Itsy Bitsy Spider." His urban environment is populated by anthropomorphic bugs, with the titular spider being a boy wearing (many legged) overalls, a (many-armed) turtleneck, and a red beanie. What's most fun here are the houses: there's a saltshaker, a teakettle, and a mayonnaise jar, and each is charmingly detailed. The six beautifully constructed spreads offer up many perspectives, including the bottom of a drain, as the spider d lots of water evicted, seemingly out of the book. Raindrops, clouds, and a sun with faces add to the charm. That spout is sure to get a workout.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Paper engineering by Gene Vosough. The familiar nursery song is illustrated with six full-page pop-ups. Egielski's signature illustrations feature clean pastel colors, smiling top hatwearing cartoon insects, and a whimsical village with sky-high flowers and homes built of teapots, salt shakers, and the like. Although a bit fragile for toddlers to handle alone, this will be an irresistible addition to story time.

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

Egielski goes way beyond the waterspout with this charming pop-up adaptation of the familiar nursery rhyme, creating a cozy world of buildings made from tin cans, saltshakers, and teapots, populated by a cast of well-dressed urban insects. Readers can watch the spider-a boy in many-legged overalls, yellow turtleneck, and red cap-disappear up the waterspout, and when the rain washes the spider out, children get a gutter-level view, with the water and spider tumbling outward from the page. Even readers who know this brief rhyme by heart will happily lose themselves in the spider's friendly hometown. Ages 3-6. (Sept.)

School Library Journal (Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2012)

PreS In this sturdy pop-up version of the classic rhyme, the Itsy Bitsy Spider is a little boy in a baseball cap trying to get home to his mom. Set in a delightfully miniature city where tomato cans are grocery stores and salt shakers look more like condominiums, each spread provides plenty of detail to pore over. The familiarity of the rhyme frees up viewers to become active participants in Itsy Bitsy's journey. Egielski's charming artwork combined with Gene Vosough's paper engineering give surprisingly lifelike movement and dimensionality, making Itsy Bitsy pop out of the water spout and the attic window fly open to reveal a relieved Mama spider. This is a must-have for libraries with special pop-up collections, or anyone who loves superb paper engineering. Jenna Boles, Washington-Centerville Public Library, OH