Just Itzy

So cute! So creative! That is what I have to say about Lana Krumwiede’s story, Just Itzy.Just Itzy focuses on our favorite spider, the Itzy Bitzy Spider. It is Itzy’s first day of spidergarten, and he wants to make sure that everyone knows that he hates being called Itzy Bitzy. He is a grown-up spider now, and he is insistent that he must be now called Itzy.  To show that he is no longer Itzy Bitzy, Itzy heads off to prove himself grown. Naturally, things don’t go exactly the way he plans.Lana Krumwiede’s story is fresh and engaging. The Itzy Bitzy Spider is a song-based story that everyone knows, so this new take is adorable. You will see a lot of the familiar story of Itzy Bitzy in Lana Krumwiede’s version; however, you will also fall in love with some new changes.On top of including our beloved Itzy Bitzy’s original story, you will find multiple other “spider-based” fairy tales mixed in with Lana’s Krumwiede’s story. Throughout this text, there are allusions to Little Miss Muffit Sat on a Tuffet and the There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.If you are an elementary teacher, this a must-have for your teacher collection! I know that it is in my curriculum to teacher allusions and alternate fairy tales. This book hits those like a T! Plus, it is super cute, and students will love it.

I read this story to several preschool classes this past month and the children loved the book. There are many "spin" offs that led to some fun discussions. We talked about nicknames. We sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider before reading the story. It was fun for me to see how many children in each class knew the rhyming word for tuffet and could recite the whole nursery rhyme. Since my 3-yr- old grandson's local library doesn't have the book, I told it to him from memory, which led to our checking out award-winning The little old lady who swallowed a fly by Simms Taback. I'll order Just Itzy for him the next time I visit.

Itzy is a small little spider that his friends and family don't seem to have much confidence in. He's so small that everyone calls him "Itzy Bitzy." In JUST ITZY, Itzy is determined to loose the "Bitzy" from his name. However, every time he almost catches a fly, something gets in the way. There are several characters from nursery rhymes that Itzy runs into. Overall, JUST ITZY is a fun little story about a little person trying to make his mark in a big world with a bunch of nursery rhyme allusions thrown in.

Follow the misadventures of a little spider who wants to prove to everyone that he is really a "big" boy and can catch his own food. Itzy will discover that web spinning is not as easy as it looks and finding the right place to spin a web can be a real challenge. Before he's done Itzy will have some very interesting experiences but he will prove that he is up to the task. This is a fun read for preschoolers and older children. You'll also discover the author cleverly works into the narrative some other nursery characters!

Our daughter is very in to the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and we found this wonderful book at the library just in time! It has a engaging story and images that keep her thinking and engaged. Highly recommend!

Itzy Bitzy loves just hanging out with his friends and his family, but now that spindergarten has started, he is all grown up and does not appreciate being called Bitzy. It's just Itzy, if you please. I thought this picture book was very clever. I love how it wound the nursery rhymes of spiders all through the story. This will be great read a loud to students, as it has a good moral lesson we could all learn from.