Barry B. Wary

Gr 2—3—In rhyming quatrains, Muir tells the story of a furry pop-eyed spider whose greatest pleasure is eating bugs and slugs, until he realizes that he has no friends to eat with. In his search for a companion, he falls in love with a beautiful butterfly that flutters away in fear when he speaks to her ("My dear, you look sweeter than cricket ice cream"). Alas ("how can you love/what you're dying to chew?"), Barry gives up eating bugs, plants two butterfly bushes, and waits by candlelight for his beloved to reappear. She does not, but a moth that flies into the candle's flame provides the spider with an unexpected, "flame-grilled" dinner. Gifford's cartoon illustrations in pink, brown, pale and dark orange, apple green, and light blue show the fluffy, long-legged spider cavorting across white pages under a garden of rose bushes; catching bugs in webs, jars, and butterfly nets; eating at a tablecloth-covered tree stump; and waiting for his love under a gray sky. The sophisticated humor in this odd little tale will be understood by elementary students, but may well be lost on younger children, despite the picture-book format.—Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH