Details
Synopsis
Miss Spider and her husband go shopping for a car.
| Size | | Length: | 32 pages | | Height: | 12.5 in | | Width: | 9.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.2 in | | Weight: | 16.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
Kirk's seemingly boundless imagination zips along at impressive speed in this follow-up to Miss Spider's Tea Party and Miss Spider's Wedding. Though some youngsters may not be as familiar with or interested in the themes surrounding those social events, they may well find this latest adventure from Miss Spider in which she and husband Holley set out on a car-buying expedition sets their wheels spinning. There are indeed plenty of cool wheels on these pages, from buggies fashioned from a snail ("the Escargot") to a grasshopper get-up (with "flexo-flea spring loaded legs") to a rolling box of matches (a.k.a. a matchbox car, one of "Super Sid's Flamin' Values"). Electric hues and a 3-D effect (e.g., in a car with wings, Miss Spider and Holley fly close-up and crystal clear, while Kirk suggests a soft-focus landscape below composed of river and trees) charge the high-energy oil paintings. Children as well as Miss Spider's adult fans will revel in this witty author's fluent, rhyming verse and scattered droll puns (e.g., when Holley thinks they're going too fast, "`There might be hungry rats down there./ We have no way of knowing.'/ `How fine it is,' Miss Spider laughed,/ `To feel my toppy blowing'"). The eight-legged heroine's many fans will delight in the hint that she may next be shopping for a boat. By any transportation mode, this personable arachnid goes the distance. Ages 4-7. (Sept.) FYI: Kirk is at work on a screenplay for an animated film starring Miss Spider, for Universal Studios.
Lopate
PreS-Gr 2 Upon receiving an invitation to tea from her mother, Miss Spider takes her husband's advice and shops for a new car. (Only on the jacket copy is Holley recognized as Miss Spider's new husband.) Together they test drive several fanciful models: some powered by wings and jumping legs, and others with leaves, grass, twigs, and other plant parts. At last, they try out the "Inferno," powered by matches, but the steering locks, the brakes fail, and they jump to avoid an explosion. Miss Spider then decides to return to the first car she saw, the blue one at Bub Bumble Bee's. However, Holley has secretly arranged for Moth Sue to purchase that car as a surprise for his wife. Miss Spider's disappointment at missing out on her favorite vehicle turns to delight when she spies the dazzling, "just right" little car on her own lawn. The energetic verse conveys the movement of the vehicles. Full-color, cartoonlike paintings, rendered in jewel tones, depict each eventful test drive on full- or double-page spreads. With judicious use of light, varied perspectives, and a fluid line that indicates motion, the lavish, enthusiastic pictures extend the text. This outing will be good for storytimes or one-on-one sharing so children can explore the details of the illustrations. Young readers will enjoy this exuberant companion to the earlier books. Cynthia K. Richey, Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Pittsburgh, PA
Lopate
Like Miss Spider's previous two adventures, this one is told in rhyme. However, the text is not as long, and because the book's humor is not as adult oriented, children may find the story easier to understand. Once again Kirk's oil paintings, with their shiny reflections and softly iridescent glow, look as if they were created with a computer (but fortunately they have none of the resolution problems of computer art). The fanciful vehicles, Miss Spider's jazzy appearance and personality, and the loving relationship between the newlywed arachnids will make this a popular choice in libraries.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Lempke
The Daliesque effect of the pictures in [Audrey and Don Wood's] 'Bright and Early Thursday Evening' will probably not appeal to grownups brought up on the line drawings of 'Winnie the Pooh.' But that sort of supersaturated color evidently does appeal to many small children. David Kirk's 'Miss Spider's New Car' is a sequel to his very popular 'Miss Spider's Tea Party' (1994) and 'Miss Spider's Wedding' (1995). The overly cute, overly vibrant illustrations ('oils on paper') seek to create an illusion of three-dimensionality by rendering the backgrounds out of focus--as though this cartoon world had been photographed, or as though the book were actually a video.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Menand
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