The title Selma gives no real clue what this 2026 (2025 in German) picture book is about. Indeed, American readers might think of Selma, Alabama and that city’s role in the Civil Rights Moment…and be actively confused by the beret-wearing spider on the front cover.
Add the subtitle, though, and you get a much better sense of what this book is: Selma: The Story of a Stellar Spider. Tina Malina’s alliterative title contains a pun: Selma is stellar, in the sense of being rare, special, and extraordinary. She’s also involved with the stars.
Selma is one of thousands of spiders in her family. All those spiders work hard on their webs. The other spiders, though, work on functional webs, webs that will let them “catch the juiciest flies.” Selma, though, is an artist with a decided spiritual element: she wants her webs to “capture the Splendor of the Universe.”
Each of Selma’s webs in the book follows a different pattern. Many fill the pages, and design becomes a major element of the book. Color likewise shifts from page to page: some pages are almost completely black except for white webs. Huge splashes of yellow fill others, and the one for the web shaped like raindrops is a paler blue.
There are twists and turns here, and, eventually and not entirely by Selma’s conscious choice–there’s some serendipity involved–Selma’s cosmic ambitions become literal, and her webs seem to fill the night sky and write spiders into the stars.
This book is more complex and ambitious than most picture books, and the images are pleasant and meaningful.
