SPIDERS NEAR AND FAR

Twenty-three species, in soft color-pencil drawings and an informative text describing anatomy, life cycle, and habits. While Dewey cautions that spiders are so varied in appearance and behavior that it's difficult to generalize, she provides useful guidelines: they all have eight legs and two body parts, make silk, and are carnivores. In her drawings, they are greatly enlarged to show all their fuzzy splendor, with close-ups of specialized features like the three claws the orb-weaver has on each foot to manipulate the strands of its web. Common and scientific names are included; scale is not given throughout, but a final spread shows the spiders described in their actual size. The common American garden spider (Argiope trifasciata) receives most attention; more exotic species include the Australian funnel web, South American bird-eating spider, spitting spider, black widow, and wolf spider. A handsome book that effectively conveys a sense of wonder and appreciation for diverse life forms. Index. (Nonfiction. 8-12)