Abracadabra!

What’s the matter with Caterpillar? She’s suspended in a kind of hammock, and she looks comfortable but sleepy. “Can you come out?” Spider asks her. “Are you sick?” Caterpillar shakes her head no. Spreads by Yang zoom in on Spider’s cheerful face as he offers a cascade of amusements, one after another, in an effort to cheer his friend. “Abracadabra!” Spider cries: he waves a magic stick and, using filigrees of golden spider silk, makes a leaf into a guitar, a flower into a hat, another leaf into a kite. “Twinkling stars!” he exclaims; they’re yellow maple leaves in a dense sky of glimmering threads. But Caterpillar is asleep. When she eventually wakes up, Caterpillar reveals a trick more magnificent than any of Spider’s. Spreads by Yang get right up close to these small creatures, animating them with bold graphic shapes and childlike features. The two characters provide an unexpected contrast: Caterpillar is quiet until the end, but proves to have been doing something far more transformational than all of Spider’s frenetic activity combined. Ages 3–7. [em](May) [/em]