Seven Spiders Spinning

The Hamlet Chronicles #1

by Gregory Maguire

It's the discovery of the seven baby Siberian snow spiders frozen in a glacier. But as the spectacular chunk of ice is being trucked for analysis, the tiny tarantulas defrost -- and escape. And when their beady spider eyes open for the very first time, they spy the seven members of a girls' club, the Tattletales. Each spider picks a girl and falls instantly in love.

But love begins to sour when one of the spiders is captured by the Tattletales' classmate, Pearl. Six alarmed arachnids set off one by one to rescue their sibling. And as they get bigger, they get meaner ... which means major trouble for Pearl, the Tattletales, and the rival boys' club, the Copycats. Because there's only one thing worse than a love bite from a poisonous snow spider -- and that's the bite of love gone bad!

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Humor, Halloween

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Gregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children's stories (such as L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England (a non-profit educational charity).

Maguire has served as artist-in-residence at the Blue Mountain Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Hambidge Center. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Calista]

A Halloween setting for a book about pre-historic spiders that were frozen in a glacier and found in modern times where they melted outside the town of Hamlet, VT. The spiders meet the tattletales club of girls where each of the 7 spiders falls in love with one of the 7 girls. The girls belong to a class at school taught my Mrs Earth - their favorite teacher and there is a boys club called the copycats. The kids are putting on a Halloween pageant.

The story is about working together and the spiders make it a creepy event. The story was engrossing and the poor creepy spiders don't really fit in this new world. It's a good Halloween read.

[D.M. Dutcher]

I've never read Maguire's other books, but this is horrible. The premise is odd in itself. 7 baby Siberian snow spiders are thawed from their block of ice by accident, and fall in love with seven little girls. One by one, they try to meet them to meet a bad fate. Meanwhile the 7 girls are in rivalry with 7 boys.

There's a lot to dislike about this book. The first thing you notice is the children. I'll just quote:

Thekla recounted the history of the Copycats and the Tattletales. How the rival clubs were founded several years back. How the name of the Tattletales, applied originally by the boys as an insult, had been taken up by the girls. "Defuse the powers of opposition!" cried Thekla "We own the language, and we transform it! Does the word Tattletales suggest a clot of simpering namby-pambies, idiotic goody-goody two shoes, authority bound mush brains?"

This is an elementary school girl speaking. I don't think any sixth grader on the planet speaks like this, or has a name like that. Maguire once in awhile will remember they are kids and use age-appropriate dialogue, but a lot of the passages are cringeworthy like this. He also can't name characters very well. Their teacher is named Miss Earth. Everyone LOVES her, but for what reason I can't fathom. The boys are named like it is 1940, not 1980-Sammy, Hector, Forest Eugene...except Moshe.

He also adds a lot of things which are purely for adults. One of the children wants to be a singing nun. He wastes time on nurses, journalists, truck drivers, and other things. The entire tone and language of the book veers off into nudge nudge wink wink style cutesiness. It's hard to convey in a review how annoying it is. The passage above is representative.

So the plot. Seven spiders. One of them gets captured by a girl, so one by one, they go to find it.

The first one goes to the school and gets impaled through the chest on the one of the girl's pencil. I kid you not. All because it wanted to give her a friendly little love nip. (Although it happens to be incredibly poisonous.) On the pencil's "excruciatingly fine point," to use his words. One by one the spiders go out, and, well, it gets worse. Need I remind you these are tarantulas? Capable of killing squirrels In another gruesome scene. Children's novels are no strangers to violence, but Maguire positively basks in the spidery deaths. It needs to be mentioned also that the spiders are in love with the girls and mean them no harm. You don't know how to react to this.

So, the spiders get mad, and try to get revenge. Because they notice they are, well, getting killed one by one. Believe me, you will root for the spiders. An eternity later, the book ends. Not with a spider victory, I'm afraid.

I know people might be thinking I'm too hard on this, but you have to read the book to see how awful it is. It's frequently cloying, campy, unrealistic even by kids book standards, cute in its nods to adult readers, and just something I cannot see children enjoying. It's possible to do this right: Daniel Manus Pinkwater is a good example of an author who can use this style. But it's a fine line to balance on, and Maguire falls off completely.

[Kasha]

I really didn't enjoy this book. It was recommended on a website as humorous, and I didn't find it very funny at all. It was more in the realm of wild and desperate to me. I didn't even think kids would appreciate the author's attempt at being "funny." The story centers on a upper elementary or maybe lower junior high class where the girls have formed a club and boys have formed a rival club. The girls occasionally do "mean girl" things to each other like taking the opportunity to announce hating another girl when interviewed live on the evening news. This is the first in the Hamlet Chronicles series (I think 7 books total), and I won't be reading the others. I probably won't tell my kids NOT to read them, but I won't draw any attention to this one before quietly taking it back to the library either.

[Ashley Wyatt]

It's Gregory Maguire. How could it disappoint? His use of language is incredible. Read it. It's worth it!

[Tacey]

I SO wish I had a class of students to read this. I was laughing the entire time I read it! And I noticed my son even turned down the volume on his DS, even though he said he wasn't listening.

[Suchprettycolors]

I love this series. It's aimed at 3rd graders. It's goofy and fun, funny and sweet.

[Tonya]

Would be a fun read aloud! My 9 and 12 year olds liked it. Fun story. Kept moving. I found myself thinking about spiders a little more than I would like :)

[Kyrie]

Seven Siberian snow spiders are frozen as babies and through a series of misadventures thaw out in rural Vermont. They attempt to terrorize a group of elementary school students. If you're an arachnophile, you'll probably be upset by the book. Arachnophobes may have some issues, too. It's goofy, a little scary, and would make a good read-aloud for some class in October.

[Mary L.]

Probably a lot more fun for kids than it was for me. The students in the class really fit in some definite molds or stereo-types. Lots of laughs to be had with just a little tension thrown in at the end.

[Shanna]

Silly and a bit dark story about seven baby ice-age spiders who become thawed in modern times, only to be massacred one by one. It should have been called "Seven Smushed Spiders."

[Dan]

It's crazy that I read Gregory Maguire back as a kid, and only just now realized it. I liked this series, but I don't remember anything about it.

[Jen (The Jenerator)]

Very cute story. The spiders on the pages freaked me out sometimes! GOSH!

[Piet Marino]

One of my faves.

[Marietje]

Seven Spiders Spinning is an entertaining, original and funny story, that will appeal to 3rd and 4th graders. However it has some major issues. Even though it is not meant to be a deep book, the characters were very shallow and stereotyped. A sweet naive young teacher, a boys and a girls clique, a bullying head of the girls clique, etc. Please! That wasn't necessary to tell the story! The cruel ways in which most of the spiders died were equally unnecessary and not a very good example for children. I have not read the rest of the series, but I hope that in the subsequent books some of these problems are ironed out.

[Stephanie]

My daughter and I read this book for our book club and I have to say that I was very disappointed in the quality of the writing. This is Gregory Maguire - I expected better. The storyline was weak, the characters were barly fleshed out and the writing was terrible. Children's literature does not need to be "dumbed down". These kids are worthy of quality writing and should be given the opportunity to experience fabulous literature.

[Jan]

I picked this book up at a resale shop because I recognized Greg Maguire's name and thought it might be suitable for my six year old grandaughter -- she'll enjoy reading it herself by the time she's eight, I think. The story is funny for me because I'm the only one in the family who isn't afraid of spiders!

[Megan]

Just what you would expect form Gregory Maguire, in children's book form. I especially likes the opening verse:

"Spider, spider, in the night,
Dangling by the bathroom light,
Why do you have to bother me
Just when I want some privacy?"

[Kris]

There's nothing really wrong with this kids' book, but there's nothing really great about it either. It may be a fun read for a grade schooler, but it was just so-so for me. I probably won't read any more of the books in the series.

[Rad]

Someone should write something about these books, maybe an essay about the occurrence of certain numbers. In this case, SEVEN! I felt bad for the spiders, though. How did they suddenly become the enemies? Goodness.

[Kaylah]

These class students find a mysterios spider that nobody knows about. But they found that spider was a lab experiment. But there seven other spiders in the forest. And these spiders wasn't just any spiders there was rare.

[A.]

Very fun, very cute, and very clever, though, to be fair, I don't know that I would enjoy it so much now if I hadn't loved it so dearly as a kiddo. But I did love it dearly as a kid-aroni, so there ya go!

[Sandy Runions]

Book talk this and kids grab it. "So she is sharpening her pencil and she blows the shavings off. We all do that, wonder why? And the spider comes down and impels himself on his true love's pencil!" The students really love it when the spiders get what they deserve.

[Robin]

Cute story, first in a series; I previewed this one to see if I it might be right for my daughter this summer, and I am sure she will love it. Fast-paced, funny, short chapters; his would make a great read aloud.

[Donna]

Read for our Kids Summer Book Discussion group. I didn't know that Gregory Maguire started out in children's books. An excellent story, I'd read the rest of the series.

[Vickie]

A wonderful book for all ages, especially if you like funny stories about spiders and kids.

[Quent Pembrey]

CUTE little Siberian Snow Spiders. Bad bite.

[Patrick]

Old Children's Book. Liked it as a kid, but haven't read it in years.

[Kim]

2 copies

[Sandy Brandes]

have just begun

finished today - cute story, definitely for a younger reader but since i had it in my possession and i like many of maguire's books i thought i'd give this one the time.

[Brittany]

Cute little Halloween story.