The Boy who was Afraid of Spiders

Poster Book Edition 

©Hamilton Trust 2008 page 1

In a place not far from 

here there lived a boy who 

looked a lot like you and 

lived in a street a lot like 

yours, who was scared of 

spiders. 

No, he wasn’t scared of spiders - he was TERRIFIED of spiders. 


“Never mind,” his mum and dad would say, 

“it’s just a little spider. He won’t hurt you. 

They make amazing, delicate webs to catch 

flies. If there were no spiders, there’d be flies 

everywhere.” 

Whenever he saw a spider, even a little 

incey-wincey spider, he would shake 

and shiver and his teeth would chatter, 

he would turn white as a ghost and he 

would call for his mum or dad to come 

straight away. 

“HELP! HELP!” he would shout at the 

top of his voice, “there’s a repulsive, 

repugnant and utterly horrid SPIDER!” 


The boy would tremble and 

gasp and hide his eyes until 

the spider was taken away. 

Mum and dad didn’t know 

what to do. 

One day the boy was playing in his room, 

when he saw something out of the corner 

of his eye. 


He went over to the bed, 

bent down and looked under 

the bed. And sure enough... 

“Help! Help!” he shouted at 

the top of his voice “there’s 

a repulsive, repugnant and 

utterly horrid SPIDER!” 

A black, scuttling something. 

A running-along-the-bedroom-floor something. 


Then he remembered that his mum was getting 

the car fixed at the garage. He decided to 

leave the spider just where it was until she 

came back. So the boy went downstairs to 

watch the television. 

He sat and 

watched a cartoon, 

and was just 

settling down when 

he saw something 

out of the corner of 

his eye... 


A black, scuttling something. A running-along-the-living-room-floor something. 

“Help! Help!” he 

shouted at the top of 

his voice “there’s a 

repulsive, repugnant and 


He went over to the 

sofa, bent down, and 

looked underneath. And 

sure enough... 


Then he remembered that his dad had 

gone shopping. He decided to leave the 

spider just where it was until dad came 

back. The boy went outside into the 

garden to play. 

He went to the shed to get 

out a ball and a bat. He 

found the bat straight away, 

but the ball had rolled into 

a corner somewhere. The 

he saw something out of the 

corner of his eye. 


A black, scuttling something. 

A running-along-the-shed-floor something. 

“Help! Help!” he shouted at the top of his 

voice “there’s a repulsive, repugnant and 


He went over to the 

cupboard, bent down and 

looked in the corner. 

And sure enough... 


Then he remembered that mum and dad were 

both out. He decided to leave the spider just 

where it was until they got back. 

He thought about the spider in his 

bedroom. He thought about the spider 

in the living room. He thought about the 

spider in the shed. “I’m going to see my 

friend,” he said to himself. 


When he arrived at his friend’s house, he 

knocked loudly on the door. His friend’s 

mum answered. “Come in, come in,” 

she said. “Jordan’s in the garden - go 

straight through.” 

The boy went down the 

garden and was surprised 

to see his friend sitting 

quite still next to some tall, 

flowery bushes. 


“What are you doing?” he asked. “Shh,” said his friend. 

“Look.” He walked over to see what his friend was looking 

at. In front of him was a tiny criss cross of patterns made 

from some kind of delicate, ever-so-fragile, thinner-than-hair 

sort of string. It looked a bit like an ever-so-small, ever-sosoft 

fishing net spread out between the leaves of the bush. 

“What is it?” asked the boy. 

“It’s a web,” answered his friend. 

“What’s it for?” asked the boy. 

“Catching flies,” answered his friend. “Look. 

Here she comes.” He pointed to the top of 

the web, where a brown, speckled spider 

climbed slowly along the criss-cross gossamer 

web lines. 


The boy stared at the spider and was just about to shout 

when he noticed the lovely pattern on the spider’s back 

and legs. He bent closer for a better look. 

“Isn’t she a beauty?” said his friend. “We think she’s a lady spider, 

because there are lots of eggs on the leaves over there. 


As the boys watched, the spider rushed over to a 

feebly-struggling fly and wrapped it quickly, but 

tightly, with its silken thread. 

Later that afternoon, 

when the boy got 

home, his mum and 

dad were getting 

tea ready. “Dad,” 

said the boy, “did 

you know that if we 

didn’t have spiders, 

there’d be flies all 

over the place?”

The Boy who was Afraid of Spiders

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