Title: The Spider’s Journey
Author: Kate Gardner
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-9845-6455-9
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 24
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Hollywood Book Reviews
Spiders have always played a nefarious character throughout time, summoning a primordial fear in many people because of the insect’s stealthy, and at times vicious behavior. Many people’s first thought when seeing a spider is to “step on it” and kill the creature. Arachnophobia is known to cause anxiety and stress upon seeing spiders, and can be triggered even when just thinking about them.
To change this fear and to educate children to understand the spider’s role in the balance of nature, author Kate Gardner has created a story in The Spider’s Journey about an innocent spider falling out of its web into a bucket of blueberries and inadvertently brought into the kitchen of a home. Once discovered, the wife expresses heightened fear and instructs her husband to kill the spider. Her husband, knowing that the spider does not present a danger to humans, returns the insect to its web out in the blueberry patch.
This is a very focused story with the moral of simply not killing spiders. It also is a valuable tool to reach the young minds of children so they do not develop a fear of spiders, and will ultimately treat all other insects’ lives as important roles in Nature’s matrix of survival.
The illustrations drawn by the author clearly bring the story to the visual minds of readers, without personifying the spider into a talking insect, simply rather showcasing the human compassion of not hurting the creature, and allowing it to return to its home outdoors. This is a mature lesson children will learn at an early age which will have many benefits to their growing up – while no doubt encountering spiders throughout their lives.
A well told tale bringing awareness to children of the plight of spiders, The Spider’s Journey, by author Kate Gardner, has a valuable place on the bookshelves of family libraries; teaching youngsters not to fear spiders, and as another consequence, understanding other insects as having their own valuable roles in Nature.