![\"\"](\"https:\/\/w2pcms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/09\/Books-Luigi-the-spider-who-wanted-to-be-a-kitten.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cLuigi, the Spider Who Wanted To Be a Kitten\u201d By Michelle Knudson. Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. Candlewick Press. Ages 4-8. 40 pages. $18.99<\/p>\nThis time around we\u2019re not dealing with a lovable lion worrying he doesn\u2019t belong in a library, but a hairy spider trying desperately to pretend he\u2019s not a spider.\u00a0 The book\u2019s title is something of a misnomer: First, the spider\u2019s name is not Luigi. And secondly, he has no pretensions to kittendom until the lady of the house\u00a0 abruptly snatches him from his dark and comfy hiding place under an old sofa. \u201cI have always wanted a kitten,\u201d Betty exclaims. She dubs him Luigi, and proceeds to treat him like a feline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though he is \u201cpretty sure his name was not Luigi\u201d and\u00a0 \u201cvery sure he was not a kitten,\u201d \u201cLuigi\u201d somehow\u00a0feels he has to live up to Betty\u2019s expectations. So he tries valiantly to play along, eating Betty\u2019s kitten food, chasing Betty\u2019s kitten toys and snuggling on the couch with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He begins to notice that kittens have a pretty good life. \u201cSpiders had to live alone in dark corners. But kittens\u2026 kittens got to have friends.\u201d He decides to be a kitten, and literally ties himself in knots to act and even look like one. \u201cHe pretended so hard, he almost believed it himself.\u201d And yet he lived in fear of being found out.<\/p>\n
In the end, of course, he is found out, but the story has a reassuring message \u2014 that you don\u2019t need to pretend to be anything you\u2019re not. Even a spider is lovable. The message of acceptance is an important one, and one that will hit home for many kids. But the plot, which is slow and improbable, and the delivery of this message are the weakest parts of the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why, for example, does Betty pretend Luigi is a kitten, when, as it turns out, she knew all along he was a spider? And when she tells him, \u201cI like you for who you really are,\u201d it\u2019s a lovely sentiment, but surely there is a less-trite way to express it?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, it is the art that carries this story. Surprising because, how do you do make a creature like a Luigi relatable, not to mention lovable? While Lions are an illustrator\u2019s dream \u2014 soft and furry, with expressive faces; heck, even their tails can convey emotion \u2014 spiders don\u2019t really even have faces. Furthermore Luigi is described as\u00a0 \u201cbig and hairy\u201d with \u201clong, bristly creepy-crawly legs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I once wrote a picture book story about a spider and was assured that no one would publish it because spiders were icky and impossible to illustrate in a way kids could respond to. \u201cDid E. B. White have this problem?\u201d I asked myself. (The answer is yes, he did, but he found an illustrator who could handle it.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similarly, Kevin Hawkes, a Gorham resident and illustrator of over 50 books, has risen to the challenge here.\u00a0 He finds ways for Luigi to win our hearts. His Luigi has huge, expressive eyes. His bristly hair looks more like soft fur. We laugh at Luigi\u2019s\u00a0 efforts\u00a0 to disguise himself as a kitten by using two legs to create \u201ctriangle ears\u201d and another to create a furry \u201ctail.\u201d\u00a0 And the sight of Luigi trying to nuzzle a coffee mug, cat-style, is just plain aw-shucks cute.\u00a0 Hawkes uses a subdued pink\/purple palette to create a soothing atmosphere that is further enhanced by the old-fashioned setting of Betty\u2019s quaint house, with its floral sofas and round-shouldered fridge. The overall effect is a gentle tale about an endearing character you cannot help but root for.<\/p>\n
A final note on the illustrations: I always appreciate little illustrator-added jokes, like Betty\u2019s cat slippers and cats-eye glasses. But Hawkes misses out on a good one in the last illustration, which shows Betty and Luigi at day\u2019s end cozily reading a children\u2019s book. Sadly, the book is not \u201cCharlotte\u2019s Web.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amy MacDonald is the author of several children\u2019s books, including \u201cThe Spider Who Created the World.\u201d She lives in Portland and Vinalhaven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighteen years after teaming up to create the New York Times bestselling \u201cLibrary Lion,\u201d author Michelle Knudson and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-40594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}