Sophie's Masterpiece: A Spider's Tale
- Book Review,
by Eileen Spinelli
Amazon.com
Sophie is an artist. She is also a house spider, but one that children will certainly cheer and not fear. The webs she weaves are spectacular--some are stars, or hammocks, or sun patterns--and her mama is very proud of her. When she grows old enough to strike out on her own, however, she is not warmly greeted by the world at large. At Beekman's Boardinghouse, a dull sort of place that "cried out for her talents," she only wants to beautify it with her gossamer artistry. But even as she is spinning a web of curtains for the front parlor, "blending a golden thread of sun into her silk," she is swatted by a screaming landlady! She scampers into the tugboat captain's closet where she sets to work on making him a new suit, day after day, a sleeve here, a collar there. Once discovered there (the captain screeches and climbs out onto the windowsill), she moves on yet again. Now a much older spider, she climbs up a long staircase to settle into a young woman's knitting basket. One day, the woman discovers Sophie... and smiles! Sophie, noticing that her new friend is pregnant and in need of a baby blanket, decides that she will spin one for her baby, a cloth into which she weaves starlight, snippets of fragrant pine, wisps of night, old lullabies, playful snowflakes, and, in the end, her very own heart. Illustrator Jane Dyer, who worked with Eileen Spinelli on When Mama Comes Home Tonight, has outdone herself in Sophie's Masterpiece, painting this bittersweet story in gentle watercolors. She manages to convincingly anthropomorphize Sophie, and paintings like the one of the courageous spider struggling up the long staircase, casting long shadows, will linger long with readers. (Ages 4 and older) --Karin Snelson
From Publishers Weekly
The team behind When Mama Comes Home Tonight here introduces readers to a spider who weaves with grace and serves others with courage. Dyer's gently tinted watercolors show Sophie as a blond with a human face and a perpetually tranquil expression (often sporting a beret); her eight-limbed body, with its two arms and six colorfully-stockinged legs, seems perfectly believable. Over time, the tender-hearted arachnid weaves garments she thinks the human boarders in the boardinghouse she inhabits will find useful, but she's always chased away before she can complete them. Tiring of her nomadic life, she discovers at last a quiet mother-to-be who is not afraid of spiders and who hasn't enough money for a baby blanket. Sophie, now nearing the end of her life, then starts on her last project: "She was down to the farthest corner of the blanket when she heard the cry of the young woman's newborn baby. And there, on that farthest corner, is where Sophie wove into the blanket her very own heart." Dyer paints Sophie in various spidery attitudes; in one painting, she dozes in a knitting basket, dwarfed by huge balls of yarn. Later, at work on her piŠce de r‚sistance, she crouches, silver-haired, beside a snowy windowpane. Spinelli and Dyer's story of devotion and generosity is as delicately woven as Sophie's own work. Ages 4-7. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
K-Gr 3-Even as a youngster, Sophie is identified as a master weaver. When it comes time for her to strike out on her own, she lands at a less than impressive boarding house. As she sees the run-down condition of her new abode, the young house spider sets out to make her world a better place. However, the plebeian landlady doesn't appreciate the newcomer's attempt at weaving a new set of curtains and shows no tolerance toward spiders in her house. Sophie proceeds to have a number of less than felicitous encounters with various boarders who similarly do not appreciate her handiwork. It is not until she is aged and weary that she enters the room of a young woman who isn't bothered by her presence. Curious, Sophie watches as she begins to knit baby booties and realizes that she is pregnant. Observing that the young woman appears friendless and quite poor, Sophie begins work upon her final masterpiece-a baby blanket. She completes her work and comes to the end of her life just as she hears the cry of the newborn infant. Expressive watercolors capture the quirky yet poignant spirit of this tale. The scenes of the aged Sophie and the new mother and child are particularly luminous. This endearing spider should rid even the most fearful individuals of their arachnophobia.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CACopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 4-7. "Sophie was no ordinary house spider. Sophie was an artist," begins this poignant new story from the creators of When Mama Comes Home (1998). When Sophie reaches "that age when a young spider must strike out on her own," she moves into Beekman's Boardinghouse, excited to put her talents to use. For the bare windows, she weaves beautiful curtains with threads of golden sunlight, but the landlady just sees dust and cobwebs and chases Sophie away. Sophie tries other projects--an exquisite new suit, a set of slippers--but each resident sees only an "ugly, disgusting spider." Exhausted and getting on in years, Sophie comes to rest in the knitting basket of a kind, young pregnant woman who is too poor to buy a baby blanket. As her last creation, Sophie spins a glorious cloth of silk and magic, weaving in "snippets of fragrant pine, wisps of night, old lullabies, playful snowflakes." Too tired to go on, Sophie knits her own heart into the finished blanket--a beautiful, mysterious gift to the new mother. From start to finish, children will delight in chastising the unimaginative, mean-spirited boarders and cheer for creative, determined, good-hearted Sophie. The simple poetic text is a great match for the luminous watercolor illustrations. In wide, softly colored spreads filled with captivating details, Dyer creates wonderful characters: the red-faced, bawling landlady; the earnest new mother; and artist Sophie, her tiny black beret and eight colorful stockings shining out from her extraordinary webs. Tender, spirited, and wholly satisfying, this beautifully crafted story will entice young ones for focused story hours or lap sharing. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Sophie's no ordinary house spider. She's an artist; and every web she spins is more wondrous than the one before. But don't mention that to the guests at Beekman's Boardinghouse, because they don't like spiders. No one there wants anything to do with Sophie or her magnificent creations -- no one except the woman on the third floor. She's a new mother "weaving" something herself; and when she runs out of yarn, Sophie knows the time has finally come to create the masterpiece of a lifetime. Eileen Spinelli and Jane Dyer, the award-winning duo who created the best-selling When Mama Comes Home Tonight, team up once again to tell the charming and bittersweet tale of an exceptionally gifted spider and the lengths she's willing to go to share her gifts with those around her.
Card catalog description
Sophie the spider makes wondrous webs, but the residents of Beekman's Boarding House do not appreciate her until at last, old and tired, she weaves her final masterpiece.
About the Author
When she was a young woman, celebrated author Eileen Spinelli lived in a boardinghouse. There, she met a young mother who couldn't afford to buy her new baby a blanket and had to use an old, brown, scratchy one provided by the landlady. Many years have passed, but Eileen never forgot that experience. She wrote Sophie's Masterpiece as a way of finally giving that baby the blanket she always wanted him to have. Eileen's other picture books include When Mama Comes Home Tonight and Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. She lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania with her husband, author Jerry Spinelli.
Buy from Amazon
Compare Prices
|
|
Home
