Science Comics: Spiders: Worldwide Webs

by Tait Howard

Overview

"Surf the web" with this volume of Science Comics, First Second’s action-packed nonfiction graphic novel series!

When a sister and brother agree to help a talking spider find her missing child, they don’t realize that it will take them on a journey across the globe! Along the way they’ll meet spiders who live in every environment imaginable, from their own backyard to the Australian Outback. Although they seem scary at first, once you learn why spiders have gotten such a bad reputation you’ll see that they are actually here to help!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250222831
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	06/22/2021
Series:	Science Comics Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	138,752
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Tait Howard is an artist and writer from the dreary Pacific Northwest. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design he has illustrated for GE and American Greetings, shown work in galleries across the country, and has worked on a wide variety of comics for companies including Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. You can find his work online on his website!

Editorial Reviews

12/03/2021

Gr 5–8—Introduced by an arachnologist who claims that "in most habitats, you are always within three feet of a spider," this overview spins out a dizzying array of spider species in brightly colored close-up portraits to go with thorough examinations of the pervasive clan's habits, life cycles, and anatomy. In the frame story Tepi, an American house spider clad in a lab coat, shrinks Charlotte, who is white, and her little brother Peter, who is brown-skinned, down with a shrink ray and leads the wide-eyed duo into a worldwide series of (mostly) friendly encounters with arachnids ranging from an ant-sized Gamasomorpha to the aptly named Goliath birdeater. All the while, Tepi expounds on everything from spider taxonomy and hunting strategies to types of webs, the chemical compositions of various types of silks, and the significant place spiders occupy in the larger ecological picture. Displaying a gift for fitting a lot of text into cartoon panels without making them look crowded, Howard illustrates the tour with a mix of comical reaction shots to go with the aforementioned plethora of specimens seen either in natural settings or full-spread galleries. Readers will learn about a host of spiders, from chelicerae to cribellum, and will come away understanding that they are (mostly) less dangerous than commonly supposed and more wonderful. VERDICT An artful blend of general facts and myth-busting; ideal for collections seeking to bolster STEM collections and convince readers to give spiders a chance.—John Peters

School Library Journal

A Junior Library Guild selection

"An artful blend of general facts and myth-busting; ideal for collections seeking to bolster STEM collections and convince readers to give spiders a chance." —School Library Journal

Praise for the Science Comics series:

"This series—written by a handful of authors—seems determined to offer a useful introduction to anything a curious grade-school student might wonder about. The insight behind these books is a powerful one. So much information about the world around us is actually better conveyed visually, through charts, illustrations, and sequential panels, than purely using words." —New York Times

"Like having a Time Life Science Library in comic books. Which is awesome!" —Popular Science

From the Publisher