One day, as I was walking in the forest, I sat down to rest. Looking around I saw a big spider spinning his web. When I looked around I saw many webs, but they all seemed to belong to this particular spider. The days were getting cooler and the spider wanted to catch as many bugs before the winter snows. High above the spider’s web, a little sparrow was flying home to his nest, when a big hawk swooped down on him. Surprised by this sudden attack, the little sparrow fought for his life. When the hawk’s claws lifted him high in the air, he turned and struck the hawk with his sharp little beak. Momentarily stunned, the hawk dropped the sparrow who fell and disappeared amongst the trees in the forest.

Once upon a time, there was an energetic little sparrow, a small, greenish-grayish frog, and a big black spider. Each one of them lived in its own world and did not have contact with each other until natures forces brought them together one autumn afternoon.

Spider, a baby abandoned on an English farm, grows up to be mentally slower than other children but manifests a remarkable talent for communicating with animals as he comes of age during World War II.

Originally published in 1903, this is an excellent source for an historical perspective on superstitions and folklore. Hundreds of entries are arranged alphabetically within broad subject categories. The original subtitle reads: "A comprehensive library of human belief and practice in the mysteries of life through more than six thousand years of experience and progress including the fundamental intuitions and instincts underlying the structure of civilization, theology, mythology, demonology, magic, witchcraft, esoteric philosophy, signs, omens, oracles, sorceries, auguries, divinations, prophecies, methods and means employed in revealing fortune and fate, systems and formulas for the use of psychical forces, hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, spiritualism, character reading and character building with all the known powers and wonders of mind and soul, illustrated with numerous ancient and modern designs and thoroughly indexed."

A beautiful story for older readers written almost twenty years ago in which bestselling author Dick King-Smith creates a fascinating picture of rural life at the time of the Second World War. Discovered as a foundling in a lambing pen, Spider Sparrow grows up surrounded by animals. From sheep and horses to wild otters and foxes, Spider loves them all, even the crows he must scare away from the newly sown wheat. Crowstarving was the idea job for Spider - he was on his own, yet never alone for all around him were animals of one sort or another. Amazingly, every animal who meets Spider implicitly trusts the young boy. This magical rapport is Spider's unique gift, but nothing else in his tough life is so easy.

May, 1915. As a dangerous ring of spies and saboteurs threatens to turn the war against the Allies, Frenchman and British operative Julian Olivier discovers goodness in his enemies' hearts. But even if he survives, will he ever be reunited with the woman whose memory he can't erase? Will Canadian airborn hero Warren Flynn survive the war, and will the Allies' newest operative, Evette, unearth the infiltrator in her own Parisian territory before it's too late?