Fiction - Miscellaneous People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - People with Special Needs, Fiction - Family Life

Spider Sparrow

Name: Spider Sparrow
Author: Peter Bailey
ISBN: 9780517800430

by Peter Bailey

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Overview

Spider Sparrow has always been different. Abandoned as an infant in a lambing pen and adopted by a kindly shepherd and his wife, Spider’s life is unusual from the start. As he grows, it becomes clear that he is not like other children: he can't walk, talk, or learn like them. But Spider has a gift: he can imitate perfectly the sounds of animals. The animals–and his community–love him for it.

For Spider, the world may be a difficult place, but he lives each day with joy and courage. And those who meet Spider will never forget him.

Spider, a baby abandoned on an English farm, grows up to be mentally slower than other children but manifests a remarkable talent for communicating with animals as he comes of age during World War II.

About the Author, Peter Bailey

After 20 years as a farmer, Dick King-Smith turned to teaching and then to writing. He is now the author of dozens of novels for children, including Babe: The Gallant Pig.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With pitch-perfect prose, King-Smith unwinds a tale of a baby abandoned in a lambing pen and adopted by a childless shepherd and his wife. From early on, it's clear that Spider is not normal; his nickname refers to the peculiar gait of his early childhood, and he is slow to develop verbal skills. But although some ostracize him and call him "simple," his parents cherish Spider, and he grows into a young man whose gifts are no less valuable for being different. Spider can mimic the sound of any bird or animal, and his affinity with creatures both wild and tame leads him into a number of quiet adventures as well as his calling as "crowstarver" (one whose job it is to scare off crows from newly planted fields) at Outoverdown Farm. Blessed with a deep capacity for happiness, Spider is content with his life, and the bittersweet ending is no less wrenching for its inevitability. King-Smith plants the lilting text firmly in the English countryside of WWII, and his folksy characters' conversations brim with authenticity, heightened by occasional bursts of broad country dialect ("Wass think of thik baby of Kath Sparrow's then?"). Poignant and wise, this deeply moving tale is not to be missed. Ages 9-12. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-In this audio version of Dick King-Smith's Spider Sparrow (Crown, 1998), listeners meet Spider, an abandoned baby boy adopted by Tom and Kathie Sparrow after they discover him in their farm's lambing pen one night. As Spider grows up, his adoptive parents realize that he is developmentally slow. In spite of this, Spider possesses an amazing ability to communicate with animals. How the community deals with this "simple" boy and his unique talent makes for an affecting story. Christian Rodska, best known for narrating C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower books on tape, really gives life to Spider and his family in his poignant reading. Rodska makes you feel Spider's innocent spirit and dignity of character. The reading is clear and well paced. The only caveat is that this Dick King-Smith story is not as kid-friendly as his other titles. Other than Spider, all the characters in the story are adults, and Spider dies at the end of the book from a congenital heart defect.-Lori Craft, Downers Grove Public Library, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.