Video Pick--Sophie's Masterpiece: A Spider's Tale
From SLJ February 2006
Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools -- School Library Journal, 2/13/2006
video or DVD. color. 7 min. with tchr's. guide. Nutmeg Media (nutmegmedia.com). 2005. ISBN 0-9771510-1-8. $49.95.
K-Gr 3–This quiet film is an iconographic version of Eileen Spinelli's book (S & S, 2001). Sophie is "no ordinary house spider"; she is part human/part arachnid and 100 per cent artist. The tow-haired heroine spins wondrous webs wherever she goes. At the start of the story, she arrives at Beekman's boarding house with her worldly belongings, ready to begin her adult life. Noting her dull surroundings, she proceeds to spin some lustrous curtains, only to be swatted with a dust rag. She retreats upstairs to the captain's room where she commences to spin him a sky-blue sweater, only to be greeted with another screech and his hasty retreat onto the roof. The cook is equally repulsed when she discovers Sophie in her slippers. Despite her good intentions, the poor creature is repeatedly scorned until she finally settles in a kind young woman's knitting basket. The observant spider deduces from the booties and baby sweater that the woman is pregnant and in need of a baby blanket. By now the spinner is frail and gray but determined to finish this final offering. Weaving in sun, moonlight, lullabies, snowflakes, and her own heart, she places the soft, silky cover—her masterpiece—on the new baby. Jane Dyer's delicate watercolors capture the fragile beauty of Sophie's gossamer creations. The boarders' unwarranted fear is depicted as both humorous and cruel. Children will gain a new respect for these magical creatures and want to learn more about their life cycle after viewing this gentle story.
