Long before Miss Spider became a popular children’s television show, she was a character in a book. This adorable children’s book by David Kirk was the first to introduce Miss Spider, a bright yellow, lovable and friendly arachnid who just wants to make friends.
As we open the book, we find Miss Spider sipping a cup of tea while looking outside. She wishes she had some friends, and if she did, she would invite them to stay for a while and she would share her tea with them.
Many different insects come near her home that day, but when she invites them to stay for tea, they all dash away, not wanting to get caught in her web. As the day goes on, Miss Spider feels more and more lonely. Maybe she’ll never make any friends at all.
But then a rainstorm comes up, and a moth gets drenched in the downpour. His wings were so wet, he couldn’t possibly fly.
Miss Spider wrapped him up carefully in a cloth and gave him a cup of tea to sip while he dried off. By the time he was able to take flight again, they had made good friends. The moth wasted no time in going to the other insects and telling all of them what Miss Spider had done for him, and they all came back to have tea.
Not just a story about tolerance and acceptance, this book can also be used to teach counting. On the first page, we meet one spider, then two beetles, three fireflies, four bumblebees – all the way up to the number twelve. Your child can learn to count, learn different kinds of bugs, and learn about being kind to others, all at the same time. 
This is not to say that I’m anxious to run out and have a tea party with a spider – I can’t stand them, personally. But if I ever met one as nice as Miss Spider, maybe I would have to rethink my position on that.
(This book was published by Scholastic in 1994.)
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