Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti
Antics!
Charlottes Web
City Green
The City Under the Back Steps
The Earth is Painted Green
The Empty Lot
Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea
Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun: A Cherokee
Story
Like Jake and Me
The Magic of Spider Woman
The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants:
A Book About Ants
Night Visitors
Only Fiona
The Spider, the Cave and the Pottery Bowl
Two Bad Ants
Why Spiders Spin: A Story of Arachne
Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the
Ashanti
by Gerald McDermott
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. 1972
Grades: K4
Anansi, a folk hero to the Ashanti people of Ghana, Africa,
is a wise and loveable trickster. In this story he wanders far
from home, gets lost, and falls into trouble. His six sons all
play a part in his rescue and Anansi is unsure which one to reward.
Because of his inability to decide, Anansi is responsible for
placing the moon in the sky.
Antics!
by Cathi Hepworth
G. P. Putnams Sons, New York. 1992
Grades: All ages
For a totally humorous and very humanized view of ants, this
is a great book. It is an alphabetical anthology of funny "ant"
words. Each page has a large, richly detailed illustration of
the word. For example, "A" is for Antique and the illustration
shows a very old ant sitting in a rocker on a porch while knitting
and listening to a gramophone. Many pages contain several funniesthe
initial pun with the "ant" word plus more in the illustration.
Charlottes Web
by E.B. White; illustrated by Garth Williams
Harper & Row, New York. 1952
Grades: 47
This classic story tells of the friendship between a wise
gray spider named Charlotte and a pig named Wilbur. Although most
of the story centers around the anthropomorphised animals, Charlotte
offers many cogent observations on web spinning and egg sacs,
the natural cycle of life-death-reproduction, and the lasting
value of friendship.
City Green
by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
Morrow Junior Books, New York. 1994
Grades: K5
While planting some flowers, Marcy, an African American girl,
and her good friend Miss Rosa have an idea to plant more in the
vacant lot next to their apartment building. They gather signatures
on a petition showing neighborhood interest in the project and
obtain a lease from the city. As Marcy and Miss Rosa begin cleaning
up the lot, many neighbors pitch in to help and soon the lot is
transformed into a community garden filled with flowers and vegetables.
The City Under the Back Steps
by Evelyn Sibley Lampman; illustrated by Honoré
Valintcourt
Doubleday, Garden City, New York. 1960
Grades: 47
While Craig and his cousin Jill are sitting on the back steps
watching ants scurry into a hole, something magical happens and
they shrink down to ant size and are escorted into the ants
chambers. They become pets of the queen and help out in the ant
colony. Through the story, the reader learns quite a bit about
ants and their society.
The Earth is Painted Green: A Garden
of Poems About Our Planet
edited by Barbara Brenner; illustrated by S.D. Schindler
Scholastic, New York. 1994
Grades: All ages
The poems of such notable authors as Margaret Wise Brown,
Myra Cohn Livingston, Carl Sandburg, and Shel Silverstein are
assembled into this collection which celebrates our green planet.
Rich watercolor illustrations complete the image the poems conjure.
The Empty Lot
by Dale H. Fife; illustrated by Jim Arnosky
Sierra Club Books/Little, Brown, Boston. 1991
Grades: 24
What good is a vacant lot? City-dweller Harry Hale owns one,
and when he looks it over before selling it, he is amazed to find
that the lot is far from empty. Its pulsing with life: birds
and their nests; ants, beetles, fungi, and molds in the soil;
and frogs and dragonflies near the stream. He is so impressed
by the utilization of the different habitat areas that he changes
his "for sale" sign to read "occupied lotevery
square inch in use." A nice connection to the often hidden
life students are likely to find in the schoolyard.
Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea: and
Other Poems for Children
by Christina Rossetti; selected and illustrated by
Bernadette Watts
North-South Books, New York. 1991
Grades: All ages
A collection of classic poems including "Hurt No Living
Thing" which features many different insects. The poems provide
a nice example of writing inspired by observations of the natural
world.
Grandmother Spider Brings the
Sun: A Cherokee Story
by Geri Keams; illustrated by James Bernardin
Northland, Flagstaff, Arizona. 1995
Grades: All ages
This Cherokee story tells how light was brought to the dark
side of the world. Sneaky Coyote convinces the other animals that
they should steal a piece of the sun, and shy Possum and cocky
Buzzard make attempts with hilarious results. But it is the most
unlikely individualtiny, wise old Grandmother Spiderwho
has the best idea of all.
Like Jake and Me
by Mavis Jukes; illustrated by Lloyd Bloom
Knopf, New York. 1984
Grades: 25
A delightful and heartwarming story about a young boy, Alex,
and his stepfather Jake. Alex feels he does not have much in common
with Jake and tries desperately to find some way to bridge the
gap. In a humorous and surprising way, a hairy wolf spider brings
the two of them together. Through the story the reader can learn
a great deal about wolf spiders. Also available as a videotape.
The Magic of Spider Woman
by Lois Duncan; illustrated by Shonto Begay
Scholastic, New York. 1996
Grades: K4
In this Navajo tale, Wandering Girl, a strong-willed shepherd
girl, is taught how to weave blankets by Spider Woman and is given
the new name Weaving Woman. Spider Woman warns her never to do
too much of anything; to respect boundaries and to keep her life
in balance. When Weaving Woman forgets the warning and devotes
all of her time to a beautiful blanket, something terrible happens.
In the end, Weaving Woman learns the value of living a balanced
life and teaches her people how to weave.
The Magic School Bus Gets Ants
in its Pants: A Book About Ants
TV tie-in book adaptation by Linda Ward Beech and illustrated
by John Speirs; based on The Magic School Bus book series written
by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen
Scholastic, New York. 1996
Grades: 15
As the class project for the science fair, Ms. Frizzles
class makes a movie about ants. In the style that has made the
Magic School Bus so popular, the class really "gets into"
their projectthey shrink and are taken into an ant hill.
The book clearly explains the different jobs ants perform, ant
communication, food sharing, tunnel structure, and life stages.
With Ms. Frizzles help, the class realizes that the ants
work together cooperatively, and that every ants job is
important for the survival of all. As in other Magic School Bus
books, there is a page of facts in the back of the book, plus
an ant hill project for parents and children.
Night Visitors
by Ed Young
Philomel Books, New York. 1995
Grades: 16
When ants invade his familys rice storehouse, young
Ho Kuan, who has great respect for all forms of life, must find
a way to seal the storehouse to keep the ants out before his father
kills them all. Through the strong visions he experiences in a
dreamduring which he becomes part of an ant colonyhe
finds the solution. This book, which is the retelling of a Chinese
folktale, makes a particularly apt connection to the optional
experiments on ant deterrents.
Only Fiona
by Beverly Keller
Harper & Row, New York. 1988
Grades: 46
Ten-year-old Fiona Foster is the "new kid" in town
and feels alone and without friends. But within six months her
efforts to protect all living thingsfrom beetles to hamstersbring
her respect and new friends. In the first few chapters, Fiona
manages to stop her parents from spraying ants that have invaded
their kitchen. Fiona follows the line of ants to their ant hill
and leaves several piles of different foods there to encourage
the ants to stay away from the house. It works, and Fiona and
some new friends gain new respect for ants.
The Spider, the Cave and the Pottery
Bowl
by Eleanor Clymer; illustrated by Ingrid Fetz
Atheneum, New York. 1972
Grades: 36
Kate and Johnny are sent to the mesa to spend the summer with
their ailing grandmother. One evening grandmother tells storiesone
about how the people came to the mesa, one about why ants have
thin waists, and one about Grandmother Spider. The next day, on
the far side of the mesa, the children discover Grandmother Spiders
secret house behind which is a hidden supply of fine clay in a
small cave. They take some clay to their grandmother who then
teaches them how to make pots as beautiful as those made by their
ancestors. When Kate discovers Grandmother Spiders home
by a spring, she thinks "How clever she was to make her web
by the spring where the flies would come" demonstrating the
relation of an animals chosen habitat to environmental factors.
Two Bad Ants
by Chris Van Allsburg
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. 1988
Grades: Preschool4
A colony of ants follows in a line behind a scout ant who
leads them to get beautiful sparkling crystals (sugar) for their
queen. When the colony departs, two curious ants stay behind.
After surviving many life-threatening situations, the two ants
become convinced they should return to the safety of their colony.
Students could answer the question, "How was the scout able
to find her way back to the sugar in order to lead the colony
to it?"
Why Spiders Spin: A Story of Arachne
retold by Jamie and Scott Simons; illustrated by Deborah Winograd
Silver Press, Engelwood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1991
Grades: 25
This is a retelling of the Greek myth about Arachne, a weaver
of fine and beautiful cloth. By boasting about the quality of
her weaving, she angers the goddess Athena who challenges her
to a contest. Seeing that Arachnes weaving is indeed on
a level with her own and angered by the images portrayed in Arachnes
weaving, Athena turns the young lady into a spiderdestined
to spin forever and weave a lonely web.
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