Sophie's Masterpiece: A Spider's Tale

by Eileen Spinelli, Jane Dyer (Illustrator)

Overview

Sophie is an artist who wants to spin beautiful creations all day long and, someday, a masterpiece. As a spider, though, Sophie has a hard time finding a welcoming place in which she can be free to live and spin. She's shooed and shuffled all over Beekman's Boardinghouse until one day she finally finds the warm, comfortable, safe home for which she always yearned — and the inspiration for the masterpiece of her lifetime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689866807
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	05/01/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	677,073
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Eileen Spinelli has written many books for children. Her 1991 debut Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch was a Christopher Award winner, and she has gone on to author numerous picture books, poetry collections, and chapter books, including the bestselling When Mama Comes Home Tonight, and the critically acclaimed Sophie’s Masterpiece. Eileen lives in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

Jane Dyer is the illustrator of many books for children, including When Mama Comes Home Tonight, Sophie’s Masterpiece by Eileen Spinelli, Roly Poly by Mem Fox, and the New York Times bestselling Cookies series by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

A tender-hearted arachnid-shown here as a blond with a human face, two arms and six colorfully stockinged legs-weaves a work of art for a grateful mother-to-be. "Spinelli and Dyer's tale of devotion and generosity is as delicately woven as Sophie's own work," wrote PW. Ages 4-7. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

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, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

A Child Magazine Best Book of 2001 Pick

Artistic Sophie is "no ordinary house spider." Alas, her talents for weaving are unappreciated at Beekman's Boardinghouse, until she befriends a penniless young woman whose newborn baby needs a blanket. With delicate watercolors to capture its beauty and poignancy, this tale is as deftly spun as one of Sophie's splendid creations.

Child Magazine

The creators of When Mama Comes Home Tonight (1998) weave another affecting tale, in which a gentle, eight-legged artist spends her last strength on a gift to a newborn baby. Though Sophie's ingeniously patterned webs are the delight of her Mama and playmates, when she moves into a drab boarding house, its residents react to her presence with fear and disgust. Most of its residents, that is—weary and aging, Sophie finds a home and quiet welcome at last when she crawls into an expectant young mother's yarn basket. Sophie's webs, all finer than the finest lace, ripple with stars, flowers, and geometric patterns in Dyer's delicately detailed watercolors. She herself cuts a stylish bohemian figure, with long, slender legs in multicolored stockings radiating from a black body topped by a flaxen-haired human head. Learning that the young woman is too poor to knit or buy a blanket, Sophie gathers strands of moonlight, wisps of night and pine, old lullabies, snowflakes, and, last of all, her own heart to create a gift that the new mother receives with "love and wonderment." Sophie may physically resemble the proud, angry protagonist of Kate Hovey's Arachne Speaks (2000), but her generosity of spirit gives her a very different character. (Picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews