Display: Get Caught Reading

The Very Busy Spider
By Eric Carle

The farm animals try to divert a busy little spider from spinning her web, but she persists and produces a thing of both beauty and usefulness. The pictures may be felt as well as seen.

Silk & Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider
By Kathryn Lasky

Readers are invited to join a researcher on a passionate hunt for Loxosceles taino, a dangerous recluse spider, captured in the engaging prose and stunning photos of a masterful team.

Stronger than Steel: Spider Silk DNA and the Quest for Better Bulletproof Vests, Sutures and Parachute Rope
By Bridget Heos
Photographs by Andy Comins

In The Spider Silk Scientists, readers enter Randy Lewis' lab where they come face to face with golden orb weaver spiders and genetically engineered goats, whose milk contains the proteins to spin silk -- and to weave a nearly indestructible fiber. Learn how this amazing material might someday be used to repair or replace human ligaments and bones, improve body armor, strengthen parachute rope, and even tether an airplane to an aircraft carrier! Readers explore rapid advancements in the application of genetic medicine and their potential to save and improve lives while considering the crucial ethical concerns of genetic research. A timely addition to the acclaimed Scientists in the Field series.

The Spider
By Elise Gravel

Part of a series of hilarious nonfiction about disgusting creatures, this book looks at the spider. It covers such topics as the spider's habitats (pretty much everywhere but outer space), the silk it spins (it can trap prey and makes a nifty bowtie), and its parenting practice (female spiders carry around their eggs in a silk purse).

Anansi: The Talking Spider and Other Legendary Creatures of Africa
By Craig Boutland

African culture, like many others around the world, is rich with tales of legendary animals and creatures. Readers of this captivating book will love learning about these fascinating stories, from that of Anansi, a cunning spider, to that of Grootslang, a creepy, cave-dwelling creature said to live in South Africa. The engaging stories are accompanied by colorful images and illuminating sidebars. Readers are taught to understand the meaning of legends but are also presented with information regarding the cultures these tales come from.

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Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages. Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...

Review: The Amazing Generation

The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World Written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price Illustrated by Cynthia Yuan Cheng New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Informational. 226 pages. In a kid-friendly adaptation of his best-selling book, The Anxious Generation , Jonathan Haidt teams up with Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone , to bring the power of good information directly to the hands of those that this issue affects most directly — kids on the cusp of getting their own smartphones. The book presents information about the drawbacks of having a smartphone and social media too soon in clear and easy-to-understand language, with eye-catching graphics and pop-outs. Throughout the book, quotes from real teens and young adults, called screen "rebels" by the authors, emphasize the points the authors are trying to make. Fictional characters are featured throughout in a graphic novel story, which further emphasizes the po...

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