Miss Spider's New Car: 25th Anniversary Edition

by David Kirk

Overview

Another wonderful board book in the bestselling Miss Spider series!: The beloved spider and her sidekick Holley reappear in this board book editions of the popular picture book that includes festive illustrations and lots of beep-beeps and other car noises to keep young children interested.

Miss Spider and Holley explore car lots, test drive some cars and encounter a few near misses, but all ends well thanks to the help of benevolent Moth, Sue. David Kirk's exuberant, luminous colors and hilarious depictions of the bug world are truly wonderful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780935112351
Publisher:	Callaway
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Series:	Little Miss Spider Series
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 4.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

David Kirk grew up in Ohio, USA, where he learned about insects and painting. He has been making toys and artwork for children for several decades and is the creator of the best-selling children's classic Miss Spider series. He lives in New York.

Editorial Reviews

"Miss Spider's New Car is a superb example of a picture book that translates well to board format. The text is a short verse, describing Miss Spider's shopping expedition with her ant buddy to buy a new car. Kirk's outstanding illustrations are luminous, even in board book format."

BookPage

"Each book in Kirk's bestselling series, including Miss Spider's ABC and Miss Spider's New Car, explodes with brilliant, glossy color and charming personality. His shiny close-up oil paintings catch young readers like insects in a web (but with much happier results). Adopted children and those in nontraditional families may take extra pleasure in the message this flashback story proffers: your mother is the creature who loves you best—whomever that may be."

Emilie Coulter

The spider with the long eyelashes is looking for a new car, and a fetching turbo-bumbled power mobile with two-stem engine is among her colorful choices. Kirk's vivid illustrations will send children's imaginations zooming!

Barnes & Noble Staff

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 Spiderin which she and husband Holley set out on a car-buying expeditionsets 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. Childrenas well as Miss Spider's adult fanswill 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.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PreS-Gr 2Upon 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

School Library Journal

For Miss Spider's fans (Miss Spider's Wedding, 1995, etc.), another visit to the long-lashed, pointy-nosed arachnid and her garish, high-gloss world. Miss Spider and her fuss-budget husband Holley are test-driving cars cunningly fashioned from shells, plant and insect parts, and matchboxes (will youngsters pick up on the visual pun?). Miss Spider loves the first car she sees, but Holley insists on trying others, then—for no discernible reason—surreptitiously arranges to have her first choice delivered to her home as a surprise. The inconsequential narrative, spun out in doggerel verse, seems to exist mainly as an excuse for the clever pictures. The last page promises—threatens—a boat-buying expedition as a sequel.

Kirkus Reviews