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Spider School
The day she was going to her new school, Kate got out of bed on the wrong side. From then on, everything went wrong. Her new school uniform went missing, her new classroom had no table or chairs and school dinner was spider stew!
1 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 1996
65 people want to read
About the author
Francesca Simon
386 books205 followersFrancesca Simon grew up in California and attended both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. How this prepared her to write children’s books she cannot imagine, but it did give her a thorough grounding in alliteration.
She then threw away a lucrative career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue (US). After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time. One of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers, Francesca has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular HORRID HENRY series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.
Francesca won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2008 at the British Book Awards for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. HORRID HENRY is published in 24 countries and is also an animated CITV series. She lives in London with her husband, son, and Tibetan Spaniel, Shanti.
She then threw away a lucrative career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue (US). After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time. One of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers, Francesca has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular HORRID HENRY series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.
Francesca won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2008 at the British Book Awards for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. HORRID HENRY is published in 24 countries and is also an animated CITV series. She lives in London with her husband, son, and Tibetan Spaniel, Shanti.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 5, 2021
Hah! Good tip: if you dread something (that's not actually dreadful), imagine it being even worse than possible. Then reality will turn out to be easy-peasy in comparison. LFL find.
August 19, 2019
We read this to our daughter, then she read it herself as an early reader and revelled in her triumph and now at the age of 7 she still goes back for an occasional re-read now. ‘Spider School’ plays with dreamscapes, encouraging children to question which bits are real and how we know that, plus the character of the dinner-lady (accompanied by pictures) will always be met with giggles of surprise.
December 28, 2023
I love this book so much it’s my childhood and it makes me so happy
June 15, 2018
Spider School is written by the author of the hugely popular Horrid Henry series and illustrated by the brilliant Tony Ross.
kate wakens on her first day at a new school. It’s a big day and she doesn’t want to go, so much so that she gets out of the wrong side of bed and this is where the trouble starts.
Kate is late and she can’t find her school clothes. Her mum is less than helpful and bundles her off in old clothes leaving her at the gates to find her own way to class. There are no toilets, the teacher is a gorilla who likes to read comics and the dinner lady is serving spiders for lunch.
Load of silly fun here and a perfect ending as, after running home to bed, Kate gets out of the right side and finds herself in a lovely school full of nice kids and teachers – and no spiders for lunch.
This is an early reader that, I expect, will appeal to a lot of five and six year olds who are not so keen on princesses and fairy castles.
kate wakens on her first day at a new school. It’s a big day and she doesn’t want to go, so much so that she gets out of the wrong side of bed and this is where the trouble starts.
Kate is late and she can’t find her school clothes. Her mum is less than helpful and bundles her off in old clothes leaving her at the gates to find her own way to class. There are no toilets, the teacher is a gorilla who likes to read comics and the dinner lady is serving spiders for lunch.
Load of silly fun here and a perfect ending as, after running home to bed, Kate gets out of the right side and finds herself in a lovely school full of nice kids and teachers – and no spiders for lunch.
This is an early reader that, I expect, will appeal to a lot of five and six year olds who are not so keen on princesses and fairy castles.
December 5, 2016
Follows the dream of Kate on her first day of school where her teacher is a gorilla reading a comic book and their lunch is a stew of spiders, snails, and snakes. She goes home to get up on the other side of the bed to find everything is good.
What I didn't like about the book is firstly the dream sequence taking up the majority of the plot.
Secondly, the book ended with the teacher telling Kate where the toilets are. Not even a relevant ending like "And there was not a spider in sight".
Finally, apart from the spiders in the stew, there were no spiders in the school, so the title was misleading.
Maybe kids wouldn't pick up on this, but I didn't take to Spider School much.
What I didn't like about the book is firstly the dream sequence taking up the majority of the plot.
Secondly, the book ended with the teacher telling Kate where the toilets are. Not even a relevant ending like "And there was not a spider in sight".
Finally, apart from the spiders in the stew, there were no spiders in the school, so the title was misleading.
Maybe kids wouldn't pick up on this, but I didn't take to Spider School much.
October 29, 2022
my spooky read for tonight did not disappoint. i used to love this book as a kid. through dreamscape, we explore the anxiety of starting school - which was always stressful for me for as long as i can remember.
i absolutely love the illustrations, my favorite part being the lunch lady and her eerie pot of slimy lunch.
👃🏻📚 low on the meter for book smells, the sound the pages make when turned make up for it though, hehe
i absolutely love the illustrations, my favorite part being the lunch lady and her eerie pot of slimy lunch.
👃🏻📚 low on the meter for book smells, the sound the pages make when turned make up for it though, hehe
December 7, 2018
Gross but good!
July 17, 2022
Fantastic because the first food was like spiders and snakes and snails and the second food was chips and carrots and peas and chicken. Really good pictures.
November 3, 2013
getting ready for halloween with you elementary school child
September 7, 2013
I actually enjoyed this book very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews