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Creepy, Crawly Spiders

--By Elizabeth Winchest

Halloween is the time for haunted houses, ghosts and creepy creatures. Seymour Simon is in the spirit! Spiders, Simon's latest nonfiction book, goes on sale November 1. The book gives kids an up-close look at spiders, from their physical features to where they live and how they build their webs.

Before Simon started writing books for kids, he was a teacher. "I always taught the kids in my classes how to be detectives using science to solve problems," Simon told TFK. "Writing was a natural outgrowth from teaching." Now 72, Simon has written more than 200 books. Some of them are fiction. But he's most famous for his award-winning science books about everything from the human body to natural disasters to outer space.

Before he starts writing the text for a nonfiction book, Simon usually looks for what he calls wow photographs--ones that will grab readers' attention. He uses 20 to 50 pictures in each book. For his books about landscapes and nature, Simon takes some of the pictures himself. He gathers research from experts, scientific journals and the Internet.

Simon's first book, published in 1968, was about animal behavior. Critters, big and small, still amaze him. "The way that spiders hunt for food and sense the world is really fascinating," he explains. "Also, the webs they build are so intricate. They are made of spider silk, which can be stronger than a steel wire."

Almost everything that he writes about, Simon says, comes from his childhood interests. He wrote his first book, Space Monsters, when he was in second grade. It was published almost 40 years later. So hold onto your ideas! You never know what webs they'll help you weave.

Next: TFK Q & A