School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Miss Spider is back in another charming story. Like many expectant mothers, she worries about being a good parent. "`I'm not prepared,' Miss Spider sighed, and tied a silken string./`My babies are about to hatch, but I don't know a thing!'" Her worst fears come to life when her youngest bundle of joy, Squirt, finds a lost, brightly decorated (chicken) egg and sets out to find its mother. Along the way, he encounters many dangers, including an unexpected snowstorm and a hungry snake, but he makes a few friends, too. Miss Spider and her husband Holley catch up with Squirt and his friends just as they are nearing the hen coop and rescue him. About to return home with his mom and dad, Squirt realizes that something is not right, and hurriedly asks his new friends to join his family. The text is written in a light, singsong rhythm. There is plenty of fun wordplay that lightens the mood of Squirt's perilous journey. Kirk's highly stylized digital art, featuring eye-popping colors and 3-D characters, leaps off each page. Suited to reading aloud and sure to please.-Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
David Kirk's famous arachnid and her family expand significantly in the paper-over-board Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids. Opening with the birth of five tykes for Miss Spider and Holley, one of the children, Squirt, finds an abandoned egg. He takes off alone to find its mother and, when Miss Spider comes to her child's rescue, her family grows even larger. An animated series of the same name will premiere in June. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Kids won't relate to Miss Spider's worries (that she's not cut out for motherhood) or be moved by the book's saccharine conclusion (that she's the ""greatest mom"" married to the ""sweetest dad""). However, fans won't mind and will happily slog through the stilted rhyming text in order to feast their eyes on the slick, brightly colored, but confusing 3-D-looking art. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
