The Spider's Web

by Laura E. Williams

Book Overview

Skinhead. Neo-Nazi. Lexi Jordan knows the names her friends use to talk about themselves, but she isn't quite sure what they mean. She knows the tattoo on her head--of a swastika--and the heavy boots that blister her feet are part of belonging. And Lexi wants to belong. She feels more at home sneaking out to meet and make plans with her friends than she does in her own home.

But Lexi begins to wonder just how safe she is...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1571316221
• ISBN13: 9781571316226
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Tangled Webs

When 14-year-old Lexi, on the heels of her parents' divorce joins a neo-Nazi Skinhead group, she literally is drawn into a dangerous web. The deeper her involvement with the Pack, as the young hate group is known, the more blurred her sense of morality becomes. Things come to a head when she shaves her head and has a tattoo of a swastika on her skull. Her younger sister Shelby, 10, looks up to Lexi and wants to join the pack. She even starts dressing in all black like Lexi down to a pair of Doc Marten boots. The Pack roams their neighborhood, demanding a "pure white" race, the "Aryan Nation once again" and call themselves Hitler's grandchildren. They turn headstones over in a local cemetery; spraypaint racist words on a synagogue; beat up a child simply because he cannot see and congregate in one member's home because he provides beer and a place for them to plan their next attacks. Things reach a critical head when they meet Ursula Zeidler, an elderly woman living alone in their neighborhood. Impressed with her involvement with the Hitler Youth during WWII, they ply her with questions and try to obtain any Nazi paraphrenalia. Ursula Zeidler forces them out of her home, but not before they attack her, causing her to fall and break her hip. Only Lexi tries to help; she tells the Pack not to hurt the woman and even calls 911 anonymously from her home. Ursula Zeidler's memories of WWII are interwoven throughout the story; one part that was especially sad was how a family with whom she had made friends and who included her in their Sabbath services were turned over to the Gestapo by her and another girl. The thought of these good people being rounded up for death might make you cry. Things spiral out of control from that point on. The police trace the 911 call to Lexi's private phone and that leads to her first session of questioning with them. Ursula Zeidler's memories of the Hitler Youth and how she betrayed a girl she made friends with haunt her and she feels she has "failed as a human being." When Lexi visits her after the attack, she implores her to leave the Pack. Lexi's hatred is fueled further by the fact that the rabbi's daughter is also visiting and that the nurse is black. When she meets them, she has to try to justify her bigotry. The Pack meanwhile has their own problems. A secret about a Pack member leaks; Shelby shaves her head and joins in some of their hate crimes and the story comes to a tragic, incindiary conclusion. A good look at how hate can distort the mind and how one who lived through the atrocities from a participant/witness viewpoint can move beyond hate instead of being a casualty of it.

I LOVE IT!

This book is an amazing story and I loved it. This is so cool because of its similarity to life. This could happen to anyone! If you are interested in WWII and the Nazi's then this is the book for you. The author never had any low points in the story, I could't stop reading this book! I always fell asleep with it in my hands because the author make you keep wanting to read more and more to find out what is going to happen next. Great book.

Longing for Belonging

Alienated from her mother, 13-year-old Lexi Jordan adopts her neo-Nazi friends as her family. Then she meets Ursula, a former Nazi who reminds her of her grandmother. Through their growing friendship, Lexi gradually acknowledges to herself that she does not believe in the hateful tenents of her skinhead friends. Even though it means loneliness and danger, Lexi resolves to leave the group and seek her identity elsewhere.

GOOD BOOK FOR RELUCTANT READERS

I'm a school social worker who knows kids from many different backgrounds. I think THE SPIDERS WEB is a good story with strong lessons about making mistakes that might not be 'fixable'. Besides teaching middle and high school kids about the reality of anti-semitism and neo-naziam, it will interest almost any kid who has gotten into dangerous or frightening situations because they're at a low point in their life. It's ideal for reluctant readers because it's highly interesting and very readable. It would be a good addition to any Holocaust curriculum.

An Exceptional Book By A Prize Winning Author

A fast paced adventure, vividly written. A young girl and an elderly woman, each on opposite sides of bigotry, learn from each other.