Miss Spider's Wedding

Fresh from entertaining her insect neighbors in the bestselling Miss Spider's Tea Party, Miss Spider the arachnid ingenue prepares to scuttle down the aisle in this sequel. Essentially this offering is more of same-admirers of Kirk's unique illustrations, with their jujube-colored palette, fever-dream characters and 3D-style compositions, will be happily snared. If anything the colors are even more intense, dominated by rich autumnal tones and highlighted by deep indigos. The verse, however, is just as protracted as in Tea Party, and there's more of it-from an overlong string of mostly singsongy quatrains Kirk weaves a tangled tale of young spider love, a villainous suitor who attempts to do away with Miss Spider's intended, a rescue and, finally, nuptials (``With crickets fiddling in full swing,/ The katydids begin to sing./ June beetles spin in pirouettes,/ And clickbugs clack like castanets''). All ages. (Sept.)