What is the message in Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider? (1984) Is this a retelling of the Aesop's fable The Ants and the Grasshopper? The very busy spider doesn't respond to multiple invitations to play because she's too busy building her web. Carle displays his vibrant animals as, one by one, they ask spider to eat grass, run in the meadow, jump on the rocks, and so on. Readers watch spider's web emerge thread by thread throughout the book. In the end, the rooster crows, "'Want to catch a pesty fly?'" The fly appears on every page, buzzing around every creature. After celebrating the beauty of birds and animals, there is no respect for the fly. The spider catches the fly. Carle spares us the reality of what happens to the fly next. The spider never does get time off because she's so exhausted at the end of her day. She's probably quite lonely as well.
