The little spider spins and is silent

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The little spider spins and is silent
Eric Carle , 1984
Book cover of the German version from 1986
Gerstenberg Verlag , Hildesheim

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

The little spider spins and is silent (English original title: The Very Busy Spider ) is a children's book by the American children's author and illustrator Eric Carle . It describes the daily routine of a spider that spins its cobweb and does not allow itself to be disturbed. The book first appeared in English in 1984 and has since been sold in numerous editions, styles, and translations.

Presentation and content

The book was produced as a tactile picture book made of thick cardboard with a thermographic print, in which the spider's web is slightly higher than the side surface and can therefore be felt. This structure increases as the network grows.

In terms of content, the book is about a small spider that lands one morning on a silk thread carried by the wind on a fence post of a farm and there begins to spin its web. Little by little the animals of the yard come to the fence and ask the spider questions and want to invite them to different activities - but the answer is always only with the sentence "The little spider is crazy and silent." (In the English original: " The spider didn't answer. She was very busy spinning her web. ") The web is noticeably taking shape, and when it is finished, the spider uses it to catch a fly that is already buzzing around the respective animals on all pages of the book. During the night an owl comes by and asks who has spun this beautiful web - the spider does not answer it either, "it is already asleep".

The translation of Viktor Carsten's text is largely based on the English-language original, with the central sentence "The little spider spinning and silent" not being translated directly from " The spider didn't answer. She was very busy spinning her web. " has been. Individual phrases and animal noises have also been adapted to the German language, for example the Oink! Oink! of the pig in the English original in the German translation a Nöffnöff! Nöffnöff! and from the question Want to jump on the rock? the goat in the english version Are you jumping over hill and dale with me? .

reception

A garden spider building its orb web

In 1995, The Boston Globe published a review of the book by Eric Carle, which was then being published as a cardboard book in the United States. The author presents the book as a classic and relates the story to the satisfaction one gets from working on something and then finishing it.

On the teaching ability of Carles picture books, including the insects trilogy , which in addition to The Very Busy Spider and The Very Hungry Caterpillar ( The Very Hungry Caterpillar , 1969) and The Very Quiet Cricket ( sings Little Grille their song , 1990) belong has been pointed out several times.

The Very Busy Spider in 1985 from The Horn Book Magazine in the Horn Book Fanfare included among the best picture books of the year.

Expenses (selection)

  • The Very Busy Spider (English original version, in numerous formats and editions since 1984).
    • The little spider spins and is silent. 1st edition. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim 1988, ISBN 978-3-8369-4150-1 (German version).
    • The little spider spins and is silent - my coloring book. 1st edition. Gerstenberg Verlag, Hildesheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-8369-5337-5 (coloring book).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Description of the book from Gerstenberg Verlag
  2. ↑ Stephanie Loer, Review of The Very Busy Spider in The Boston Globe, June 19, 1995 (based on [1] )
  3. ↑ In the meantime, more insect stories starting with The Very ... have been added, and in a biological sense spiders are not insects.
  4. ^ Emer O'Sullivan: Historical Dictionary of Children's Literature . Scarecrow Press, November 22, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-7496-1 , p. 60.
  5. ^ Bernice E. Cullinan, Diane Goetz Person: The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature . A&C Black, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8264-1778-7 , p. 147.
  6. ^ Carol M. Butzow, John W. Butzow: Science Through Children's Literature: An Integrated Approach . Libraries Unlimited, 2000, ISBN 978-1-56308-651-9 , p. 57.
  7. ↑ Horn Book Fanfare 1985

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