Review: Threat of the Spider
Threat of the Spider (The Web of the Spider series) by Michael P. Spradlin Margaret K. McElderry Books (imprint of Simon & Schuster), 2025 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Judith S. Greenblatt Buy at Bookshop.org Germany, 1930. Twelve year old Ansel’s father has gone missing. No help will be had from the police, as his father was fighting for a free press in Germany. It’s up to Ansel and his friends. Ansel applies what he has learned from reading his favorite books, the “Dirk Goodly, Boy Detective” novels. First considering possible kidnappers, Ansel focuses on Hans and his friends in his town’s Hitler Youth chapter. Ansel, who is quick to speak up against what he sees as wrong, and who is smart and funny, has been Hans’s enemy for a long time. Enmity between the two boys grew as Hans became more arrogant and even more of a bully. Can Ansel be right? Threat of the Spider is a fast paced and compelling story: readers will want to know what happened to Ansel’s fath...