The Woman Behind the Spider

By JOANNA STEIN

Sylvia Rouss was getting ready. She told me, when I recently phoned her at her home in Los Angeles, that she was preparing the students in her preschool class for the High Holidays. During the High Holidays, Rouss talks to her students about friendship and the importance of being kind to one another. According to Rouss, the holidays are a time to teach children to get along with each other and to settle disputes. The teachings of the Torah emphasize the importance of kindness, and Rouss aims to promote that idea with her class and in her stories.

Before she started publishing children’s books, Rouss wrote stories for the children in her class. Her colleagues suggested that she pitch her story ideas to a publisher, and she did. Her first book, Fun with Jewish Rhymes, was published in 1992.

The idea for Sammy Spider originated when Rouss took her pupils to see a puppet show before Hannukah. Rouss said the students were taken with a puppet of a big spider wearing different colored tennis shoes. She had wanted to write a story about Hannukah for her class, and she thought about using the connection between the spider’s eight legs and the eight nights of Hannukah to reinforce counting to eight.

Rouss said she did not write Sammy Spider’s First Hannukah with the intention of starting a series. However, when the book became popular, her publisher asked her to write another Sammy Spider book about Passover, which was also a success.

According to Rouss, her students, who love Sammy Spider, are her biggest critics. When she writes a new book, Rouss reads the book to her class before she sends it to her publisher. “If they like it, I know it’s ready to send to my publisher,” she said. “But if they are bored, I don’t bother sending it.”

To date, there are eight books in the Sammy Spider series, which is primarily aimed at families with young children. Sammy Spider’s First Sukkot is the latest book in the growing series of Sammy Spider holiday sagas. Rouss has also created four Sammy Spider activity books to accompany the story books in the series.

In writing the Sammy Spider books, Rouss said she intends for Jewish children to “see the beauty of the Jewish holidays and appreciate our celebrations.” According to Rouss, Jewish people have to “look to ourselves and see what we have in our religion that we can cherish—our holidays.” Sammy Spider is “an outsider that wants to be a part of our holidays. Sammy sees the beauty of it.”

Rouss said Jewish people are “very lucky” because we have a yearly cycle of celebrations that serve to reaffirm our Jewishness almost every month. In writing books for Jewish children, she hopes to instill them with a sense of excitement about being Jewish.

In addition to teaching children about the Jewish holidays with the Sammy Spider series, Rouss reinforces a different educational skill—such as numbers, shapes and sizes—in each book. Rouss said parents are pleased that the books have educational value as well.

Teachers have written Rouss letters about the reactions that children in their classes have had to Sammy Spider. According to some teachers, when children see a spider in the classroom, they don’t want to harm the spider because they say “it could be Sammy.” After reading books in the Sammy Spider series, the children have developed a greater respect for other living creatures, Rouss said.

According to Rouss, Sammy Spider is “very active.” The fictional spider has taken on a life of his own. “For me, Sammy is real,” Rouss said laughing. “I feel he exists.” Rouss is currently working on a Shabbat activity book and a Passover Haggadah incorporating Sammy Spider. To address the issue of work on Shabbat, the Shabbat activity book will have two sections—one for before Shabbat and one for during Shabbat. The first section will have activities that use tools like a pencil or a crayon to create an art project, but the second section will not require activities that would be considered work.

Students in Rouss’ class have suggested that she write a book about Sammy Spider’s first day of camp or Sammy Spider’s first Christmas. While Rouss hasn’t ruled out doing other things with Sammy Spider at some point, her goal for now is to focus on the Jewish holidays. Rouss said future Sammy Spider books might focus on the remaining Jewish holidays and an exploration of Jewish values. “You never know what his next adventure will be,” Rouss said. “As long as Sammy continues to have an audience of children that love and enjoy him, I’ll continue to find something to write about.”