Sylvie
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
One small spider takes a big risk to bring together the people she watches over in her apartment building in this charming picture book from the celebrated author and illustrator of Truman.
Sylvie hangs on a silvery thread, safely hidden under her damp, dark fire escape. Sure, it’s a little too close to the dumpster below, but if she stays carefully out of sight, she can watch over her people in the apartment building above—a painter, a proper lady, a man with a plan, and a girl with an exceptionally brave tortoise.
Day and night, night and day, Sylvie watches over them making sure everything is just so. Lately though, her people seem to be missing…something. Sylvie wants to help, but she’s always stayed out of view. After all, not everyone appreciates a spider who calls attention to herself. When a most audacious idea comes to her though, one that might make everything more than just so, maybe even just right, can Sylvie muster her moxie and risk stepping into the spotlight?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this standalone spin-off to Truman, a gray spider named Sylvie keeps a close eye on four of an apartment building's human residents, portrayed with varying skin tones, whom she thinks of as "her people." Though everything seems "just so" for each denizen, she's lately noticed from the fire escape that something's amiss, and wonders whether "the four need something... more." Sylvie knows that "not everyone appreciates a spider who calls attention to herself," but she nevertheless takes a risk; a vertical spread depicts the arachnid spinning a silvery web to beckon each individual to the building's rooftop, where they quickly bond and transform the space into a community gathering place. Not only is Sylvie not imperiled, she's celebrated and warmly welcomed into the fold. Reidy records Sylvie's qualms and enthusiasms with a breathless, enthusiastic voice (her idea is "audacious, dangerous, MAGNANIMOUS"), while Cummins's digitally finished multimedia art combines reportorial immediacy with a kind of sketchbook impressionism that takes readers inside Sylvie's head. Read with or without pandemic-era context in mind, it's a warming story about the necessity of connection and community. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary. Illustrator's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary.
