Diary of a Spider

The main character in this book goes to school every day, has a sister and a wise old Grampa, plays at his best friend's house, and is afraid of a bully. Sounds like many kids you know, right? The only difference is that this kid happens to be a spider, with a best friend named Fly. And the only thing that scares him more than the bully Daddy Long Legs is...the vacuum cleaner.

Just to give you a taste for how funny this book is, here are some sample entries from Spider's diary (although they are so much better when accompanied by the illustrations!)

"May 7. Mom said I was getting too big for my own skin. So I molted."

"May 8. Today was show-and-tell. So I brought in my old skin. My teacher called on it to lead the Pledge of Allegiance."

Doreen Cronin has written several humorous children's books, including Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, and Duck for President, but my favorite books of hers are those she has teamed up with illustrator Harry Bliss on: this book, Diary of a Spider (2005), and its companion, Diary of a Worm. Both of these books are absolutely hilarious and will have kids and adults laughing together. I would love to use this book as a read-aloud for an elementary class. It could be used to teach many things about spiders and insects; just a few facts that children will learn from this fictional story are that spiders are not insects, that they have eight legs, and that they can shed their skin. Another useful aspect of this particular story is that it may help children who are afraid of spiders to get over this fear. In fact, as Spider says himself, he is scared of humans with big feet!