Bestselling author Dick King-Smith creates a fascinating picture of rural life at the time of the Second World War.
Discovered as a foundling in a lambing pen, Spider Sparrow grows up surrounded by animals. From sheep and horses to wild otters and foxes, Spider loves them all, even the crows he must scare away from the newly sown wheat. Crowstarving is the ideal job for Spider - he is on his own, yet never alone for all around him are animals of one sort or another. Amazingly, every animal who meets Spider implicitly trusts the young boy. This magical rapport is Spider's unique gift, but nothing else in his tough life is so easy.
'A powerful and heartwarming story... one of those children's books much enjoyed by adults' - Times Educational Supplement
'This book demonstrates everything that is good about writing for children. It is a book of love, trust and wonder thoroughly recommended to adults and young people alike' - Carousel children's book magazine
Author
About Dick King-Smith
Dick King-Smith was born in 1922 and brought up in Gloucestershire.
Dick served with the Grenadier Guards during World War II and was mentioned in dispatches. He then spent twenty years working as a farmer and a short period teaching in a primary school before becoming a full-time writer.
Dick wrote over seventy stories, many of which have animal characters for the simple reason that, "I like them, I've always kept a lot of pets, and because it's fun putting words in their mouths." His farming years were the inspiration for many of his books, and pigs have featured in several of them because they are his favourite animal. Dick won the 1984 Guardian Fiction Award for The Sheep-Pig, which was later turned into an Oscar-winning film, 'Babe'. He died in 2011.
