The Art & The Story, pt 4
"Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider," by Jessica Lanan
Callie Feyen, at Tell Me A Story That’s True, are writing this month about books considered for the 2024 Caldecott Medal. We continue with “Jumper: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider,” by Jessica Lanan.
Hello, Poetry Friend
In third grade I had to write a report on an animal, using sources from our school library. This was back in the day when encyclopedias reigned, but nonfiction picture books could count as well. I didn’t find one, but this picture book is the kind of informational source I was looking for — one that not only gave facts but that also helped me care about the object of those facts.
The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is given to honor distinguished informational books for children. This is a nonfiction award, and the last few pages of “Jumper” include simple scientific explanations and diagrams about how jumping spiders jump. Third grade book report, here we come!
That’s the easy part of this book. The hard part is getting kids to love an ugly, hairy spider.
(No offense, Jumper. Looks are not your charism — jumping is.)
Jumper has eight eyes, eight hairly legs, and what looks like a terrifying mouth. She is “as small as a bean,” but if she were monster-sized, she could take down Godzilla with one leap.
This is her superpower, to “jump five times [her] body length.” She can jump away from a predator, like a cute Carolina chickadee, and she can jump toward prey, like a grasshopper. Whatever you think about Jumper, she is “our small and stealthy friend and neighbor.”
My favorite pictures illustrate what an eight-eyed creature sees — “in every direction at once … above and behind and all around.” Seeing these, I wonde what am I missing, with my two lowly eyes.
Those seeing pictures are when I began to think about the little girl, who appears throughout the book. What is she doing in a book about beautiful science?
She is helping tell the story.
This book is an example of Show, Don’t Tell at its finest. Author and illustrator Jessica Lanan doesn’t tell us why the girl is there — she shows us.
Girl watches … Jumper watches
Jumper climbs … Girl climbs
Girl jumps … Jumper jumps
Girl listens … Jumper listens (alert! more words used as illustrations!)
and finally, Girl, part of a family … Jumper, part of our Earthen family
It’s as if Lanan is saying, There are some strange and talented creatures in this world. They are a lot like you, Dear Reader. Let’s be good neighbors to each other. We are a community.
That's something poet Walt Whitman wrote about too, and he too used a spider.
And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them, Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul. from "A Noiseless, Patient Spider," by Walt Whitman
“Jumper” won the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal.
Caldecott Journaling
Go back to the title page, before the story begins. How does the location of the spider and the girl communicate the author’s theme?
In the pictures illustrating Jumper’s vision, it appears the girl might see the tiny spider. You know this girl (you’ve spent several pages with her). What would she say to Jumper?
I kind of love that the chickadee is the bad guy in this story. I just need to say that.
Walt Whitman’s spider poem is about connection. (I can connect with a spider only because of Charlotte, of Charlotte’s Web.) Write a poem about connection using an animal.
Happy poeming!
Megan
I have a poem in my Beautiful Glimpse collection called "A Tangled Web" that was inspired by Charlotte's Web.
My mind is a
tangled spider's web
of words and worries,
knitting together letters
to form
"Fear,"
"Doubt,"
and
"Not Enough."
Then Jesus breaks in,
the sticky web
that holds lies is
torn to shreds,
the tangled filigree of knots
straighten,
and Jesus weaves words of hope
like Charlotte did for Wilbur.
Now I'm
"Radiant,"
"Chosen,"
and
"Loved."
I love that we wrote about the same thing without knowing it. :)