Based on the original poem of the story of the fly who is flattered into stepping into the spider’s web, this picture book is beautifully illustrated in black and white. The spooky Victorian house is the perfect setting for the tale.
A Non-Aesop Fable
This is a fable not written by Aesop. What are the characteristics of a fable that demonstrate that this is one:
- animal characters—behaving in their stereotypes
- a moral to the story
- animals are anthropomorphized
- frequently doesn’t have a “happy ending”
The Moral of the Story
Fables always have a moral. The rhyming moral of this story is:
“And now, dear little children, who may this story read, To idle, silly, flattering words I pray you ne’er give heed; Unto an evil counselor, close heart and ear and eye, And take a lesson from this tale, of the Spider and the Fly.”
Be sure students know what that means. Do they agree that it is the moral of the story? What modern “schemer’s webs” might there be to tangle you up?
- internet fraud
- internet predator