Imagine a scientist, afraid of the dark as a child, who spends much of her time in dark, deserted places looking for spiders. Photographs, many of them spectacular, accompany the story of arachnologist Greta Binford as she grows up and becomes a professor of biology specializing in arachnids. The reader accompanies Binford on a research quest to the Dominican Republic on a search for the deadly brown recluse spider to determine their early origins and their migration to North America. Children fascinated with spiders will catch the infectious spirit of a scientist at work. A glossary of spiders accompanies the text.

Recommended by Beth Yankey, Librarian, Virginia