Review of The Spider Lady

More About The Spider Lady : Nan Songer and Her Arachnid World War II Army

Venomous spiders, delicate silk, and science experiments filled Nan Songer’s days and nights—her home in California overflowed with many-legged critters. With inspiration from a friend, Nan began to study how spider silk could be harvested. The finely woven material spiders used to create webs was much stronger than it looked, and Nan was eager to unlock its potential and hopefully help her country at the same time. At the height of WWII, she studied different spiders before landing on the poisonous black widow as the perfect spider to experiment with. Their strong silk could be used for crosshairs on rifles, which Nan used to fill massive orders for the US military. Despite the danger posed by black widows, Nan wasn’t deterred—she wanted to play her part. Using a device she built for extracting silk, Nan humanely used it on the deadly spiders to get both extra fine and super heavy silk.

More About Author Penny Parker Klostermann

Penny Parker Klostermann is the author of Merry Christmas, Dear Mars, There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight and A Cooked-Up Fairy Tale. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and was a runner-up for a Barbara Karlin Grant for Writers of Picture Books.

More About Illustrator Anne Lambelet

Anne Lambelet has created cover art for several book series, and has illustrated a variety of books, including Cloaked in Courage, Maria the Matador, and The Poisoned Apple. Her titles have received starred reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and others. She received her illustration degree from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts.

Thoughts on The Spider Lady

As the mom of a insect lover, there are plenty of creepy-crawly books on our bookshelves. But The Spider Lady is so much more than a collection of insect facts! This story of a self-taught entomologist is so amazing that, if I didn't know better, I would swear it was fiction. It combines the best of both worlds for young insect enthusiasts: lots of info about spiders and a human story that will intrigue everyone. I feel this book can introduce a conversation about not giving up as well as what we can learn from the amazing things that animals can do. Extra points for direct quotes taken from the writings of Nan Songer (The Spider Lady) as well as a photo of her.

The illustrations are done in earthy tones - in keeping with the subject - and included so many details. I feel you could read this book multiple times and notice new things in the illustrations each time. The age group for this book is Grades 2-5/ages 7-10 and does a great job of straddling the line in being a book that a child could read alone or would be happy to listen to an adult read aloud.

A Little Extra

You can watch a fun video of Penny reading her book There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight . Enjoy it with your favorite little HERE.