Kids into books: Spid

Author: Ursula Moray Williams

Publisher: Random House, $9.95

Age Group: 8-11 years

It was a long, long way up the wastepipe, but by now the spider had climbed most of it, and was still climbing.

First one leg came out of the plughole and then another, and then another and then another and then another and then another and then another and then another.

Spid had arrived.

'I thought spiders only had six legs,' said the boy who was looking over the edge of the bath, 'but I've been counting yours and I thought they would never stop. You are the biggest spider I have ever seen! Are you sure you only have eight legs? You haven't left any down there? Where do you come from, anyway?'

The spider explained that he had been trying to get into the house for some weeks, because hiding in a coalshed was not his idea of happiness. He loved people, he said, and he wanted people to love him too.

"I love spiders,' said the boy, 'but nobody else does, not in this house! My mother scrams when she sees one. My father stamps on them!'

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Spid