Item: The Spider's Thin Legs
Rating: 5
Author: artisanb

The Spider's Thin Legs by Ada-Ari
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The Spider’s Thin Legs by Ada-Ari

Winner of Artisan Book Reviews “Book Excellence Award” for the best children’s picture book of 2021.

The Spider’s Thin Legs by Ada-Ari

Have you ever wondered why spiders have thin legs? Journey with us to Ghana, a country in Africa, for Ada-Ari’s retelling of this time-honored folktale. You will learn about Anansi and how his actions had a long-lasting effects on spiders all over the world. The story features counting reinforcements from the numbers 1 – 8 as well as a moral lesson on the importance of following directions. This hardcover version includes two fun fact cards about ASHANTI culture: The Kente Cloth and The Golden Stool. Ada-Ari’s story books are historical artifacts – returning a piece of the African legacy that was lost over centuries of migration from the continent. The back cover of each book provides child-appropriate geography lessons highlighting the specific country in Africa that each story came from.

Artisan book review:

The Spider’s Thin Legs by Ada-Ari is a cheerful, lively and fun tale that tells the story of a cute purple spider named Anansi who has short sturdy legs and excellent balance. One day Anansi’s mother asks him to take some loaves of bread to his grandmother’s house. She instructs him to go straight to her house without stopping to talk to anyone. But as Anansi walks along, he can’t help but notice his friends along the way and what they are doing. He wants to join in with his friend the ant to build a sandcastle, and his friend the worm to dig tunnels. He sees a bee along with many other delightful friends doing all kinds of fun and wonderful things. Anansi wishes he could join in too, but he has to complete his mother’s task before he can come back and join them!

Anansi thinks and comes up with a plan. He decides to spin a web and tie one web to each of his friend’s yard and then he ties the other ends of the web to each of his eight legs. He tells each friend when they are ready to play, to pull on the web to signal for him to come back to his friends once his task is done. Just when Anansi reaches his grandmother’s door, he feels a tremendous tug stretching his once thick legs to become permanently thinner, longer and lighter! The Spider’s Thin Legs by Ada-Ari is such a marvelous, amusing and wonderful African Folktale retold in a cute and whimsical way that is guaranteed to captivate the imaginations of young readers and teach them about the “long-lasting effects on spiders all over the world”.

The Spider’s Thin Legs is a fun-filled journey to Ghana, Africa and provides children a creative and fun time imagining why spiders might have such long, thin and light legs! I read this book to my own children and they thoroughly enjoyed the funny clever story and the amazing vibrant illustrations, along with all of the vivid and cute animal characters and friends! We also loved the fun facts about the incredible African culture which are included in the back! Artisan Book Reviews highly recommends The Spider’s Thin Legs by Ada-Ari an entertaining, charming and clever African Folktale for families and children of all ages. Book reviewed by Beatrix Bloom for Kids Lit Book Café.

Parents, teachers, early care educators, childcare providers, nannies, grandmas, family friends, and libraries are going to want to get the beautiful extra large hardcover copy for their children. It is sturdy and well-made with thick quality paper. The characters, scenery and illustrations pop right off the page. The kiddos are absolutely loving The Spider’s Thin Legs – as evident in all of the 5 star raving reviews it is receiving.