Customer Reviews

Along Came Spider

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I am a teacher working in a 3rd grade inclusion classroom which is made up of regular education children and special education children. We spend a great deal of time on community building activities throughout the year, and encourage the children to celebrate the differences among all of us. Along Came Spider was a wonderful springboard to some very valuable discussions regarding peer pressure, friendship, how to make new friends while maintaining old friendships, and accepting differences in others. I will read this book to my class every year. It would also be a terrific book for literature circles.

Along Came Spider by James Preller is a middle grade novel. Spider and Trey have been best friends since they were born, six weeks apart. Trey has always been a little weirder than the other kids; in the neighborhood that's never been a big deal. But now that they are in 5th grade, Trey's oddities and eccentricities are suddenly a bigger deal. They don't bother Spider, but the boys he is starting to hang around with, the popular crowd, do not understand him. When one of the boys tells Spider to leave Trey behind now that they are getting older, he has to decide which is more important: a lifelong friendship or his future place on the social hierarchy?

Spider is a well-realized character who reminds me a lot of the boys in my own classes. The middle grades are so pivotal for friendships and I am glad to see a book that deals with boys in this area. And Trey appears to be mildly autistic, though it is never stated explicitly in the text. It's delightful to see boys dealing with this, as most books I have read in the past on this topic focus on girls.

This is a great book and one I can't wait to share with my students. I think it will resonate with boys and girls alike. James Preller has crafted yet another masterpiece for middle grade readers!