The Very Busy Spider, by Eric Carle

Specifics
The Very Busy Spider, by Eric Carle
Published by Philomel Books, 1984

Target Audience
Lexile level 130L
This book is for beginning readers, grades kindergarten to second grade.

Summary
This book is about a spider spinning her web. Many animals around her on the farm ask her to do things with them, but she never replies to them, because she is too busy spinning her web. When the spider finally finishes her web, she immediately catches a fly in it, and then goes to sleep. The web is drawn in a way that it is raised, so that the children can touch and feel the spider's web.

Evaluation
This is a great story for teaching students about the different things that animals do, and why they do it. The story is realistic, because spiders do spin webs, ducks do swim, cats take naps, dogs chase cats, etc. The characters seemed real, and they fit the setting of a farm. The setting of a farm seemed authentic, because each of these animals would easily be found on a farm.

Lesson
This book would go along great with a field trip to a farm to learn about all of the animals. The author's use of onomatopoeia would be discussed, and the students could even make the sounds of the animals together as a class. The personification of each of the animals would be discussed, as well as each of the animals talking about what they like to do. The repetition of each page would be pointed out and discussed. Foreshadowing in the form of a fly being on each page of the book, until the spider catches the fly in its web will be pointed out to the students by asking them what they think is going to happen to the fly.