UP, UP, AND AWAY

“When the warm winds blow” in spring, a host of tiny garden spiderlings clamber out of the silken sac that protected them over the winter, and one—eluding hungry predators that include her own brothers and sisters—spins a long strand that carries her away on the breeze. After a long season in her new home she spins her own egg sac, fills it and then dies “as mother spiders do every year.” Wadsworth retraces this life cycle in simple, non-anthropomorphic language, and Wynne’s pale, naturalistic illustrations are just as restrained and matter-of-fact. Her delicate watercolor, gouache, ink and colored-pencil images include just enough detail to focus readers’ attention on what matters, from Spider’s many escapes from predators to her own successful trapping of prey. Along with being good preparatory material for a shared reading of Charlotte’s Web (obviously intentional, as this book is dedicated to E.B. White), this may draw budding naturalists looking for a less melodramatic alternative to Sandra Markle’s Sneaky, Spinning Baby Spiders (2008). (afterword) (Informational picture book. 6-8)