Carle, Eric. The Very Busy Spider. New York: Philomel Books, 1984.
The Very Busy Spider is a classic children’s fiction picture book. The story is told in third person about a spider on a fence of a farm that wants to spin her web. On every page we are introduced to a different farm animal that tries to distract the spider. The spider never leaves the fence, and continues to make her web. At the end of the story she catches a fly in her web. We learn from the spider that if you keep working and stay focused, in the end, you will get what you wanted.
The art in this picture book is impressionistic. The colors are emphasized. Carle uses very bright colors on white backgrounds. Every picture is made up of a mixture of many shades of the same or similar colors, making a collage effect. Eric Carle adds texture to the book through the spider’s web. Readers are able to feel the web on every page as it grows. The pictures take up the whole page, with the very top being left for the text, with the exception of the last page. On the last page the text goes down the side of the left page, with the pictures taking up the rest.
The relationship between text and illustrations is symmetry. The text and illustrations say the same things. This is a good book for kids who are learning to read because of the repetitiveness of the words. The kids also can learn all of the noises animals make in the book. This book is appropriate for all ages.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
This was my favorite book growing up! I was interested to read your blog because it's weird to see it in such "adult" terms. Who would have thought that a favorite of mine was actually full of underlying meanings and pictures that portray so much more than meets the eye of a 4 year old. I wish I was part of your book group to hear all about it!!
Eric Carle has such a distinctive style! It is interesting to see that we have reviews of a number of his books on the blog now.
Post a Comment