A 2005 Sibert Honor Book

National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery and award-winning photographer Nic Bishop team up for an amazing excursion into the world of working scientists studying Earth’s biggest and hairiest spiders: tarantulas!

Sam Marshall loved animals but disliked school. Then, on his first college research project, he set out to study tarantulas, and everything changed.

Now Sam’s a spider scientist extraordinaire, exploring the dense rainforest of French Guiana, knocking on the doors of tarantula burrows, and trying to get a closer look at these incredible creatures.

Yellow blood, silk of steel, and skeletons on the outside are just a few of the remarkable attributes tarantulas boast.

Join Sam as he visits the largest comparative spider laboratory in America where close to five hundred of these fascinating creatures live, dazzling and astounding the scientists who study them.