Dick King-Smith Quotes

Young Spider is different from other boys; he’s handicapped both mentally and physically. But he has a marvellous affinity with animals of every sort. A crowstarver is someone who scares crows away from the growing corn, and Spider is the best crowstarver there ever was; and in his understanding and love of all animals, even the croaks, as he calls them, he finds fullfilment.

There’s a warmth in this book, a profound understanding of the cycle of birth and death, and a wisdom that knows that big things like joy and wonder are often found in little things like robins and Liquorice Allsorts and penknives.

“Crowstarving was the ideal job for Spider - he was on his own - yet never alone, for all around him were animals of one sort or another.”

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 must scare away the newly sown wheat.

A foundling, Spider Sparrow isn’t like others; he doesn’t speak much and he shuffles along. But in spite of his infirmities, Spider has a special affinity for animals. The story of a boy who seems handicapped but who uses his strengths to make a lovely life for himself.

“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.”

“From the moment he’s left as a foundling in a lambing-pen on Outoverdown Farm, Spider Sparrow is surrounded by animals. Adopted by the kindly shepherd and his wife, Spider has comes to know all the animals on the farm, including the crows he must scare away from the newly sown wheat.”

A foundling, Spider Sparrow isn’t like others; he doesn’t speak much and he shuffles along. But in spite of his infirmities, Spider has a special affinity for animals. And that’s the story. The story of a boy who seems handicapped but who uses his strengths to make a lovely life for himself.

The book focused on animals, follows the boy Spider, abandoned at birth, and different through life. His gift for befriending animals brings him joy & value in his small farming community. We get a glimpse of life in the English countryside during World War II.

“In the pre-war rural world of the English countryside, The Crowstarver tells about a close-knit farming community and the ways of animals and birds. But this is a story of country life with a difference. Joy comes to a childless shepherd and his wife when a baby found lying in the straw of a sheep pen becomes their very own child. As he grows up it becomes clear that Spider is not “normal”.

“When Babe, the little orphaned piglet, is won at a fair by Farmer Hogget, he is adopted by Fly, the kind-hearted sheep-dog. Babe is determined to learn everything he can from Fly. He knows he can’t be a sheep-dog. But maybe, just maybe, he might be a sheep-pig.”

″‘What’s that noise?’ said Mrs Hogger, sticking her comfortable round red face out of the kitchen window. ‘Listen, there ‘tis again, did you hear it, what a racket, what a row, anybody’d think someone was being murdered, oh dearie me, whatever is it, just listen to it, will?‘”

“When he had driven down to the village and made his delivery to the Produce Stall, Farmer Hogget walked across the green, past the Hoopla Stall and the Coconut Shy and the Aunt Sally and the skittles and the band, to the source of the squealing noise, which came very now and again from a small pen of hurdles in a far corner, against the churchyard wall.”

Babe is the leading role. Babe was a little pig with no mother. He came to live with Farmer Hogget and his sheepdog, Fly. Babe wants to like Fly being a sheepdog. Fly loved Babe and taught him many sheepdog lessons. Babe was a clever and polite little pig.

‘You do never win nothing,’ said Mrs Hogget at tea-time, when her husband, in a very few words, had explained matters, ′ though I’ve often thought I’d like a pig, we could feed ‘un on scraps, he’d come just right for Christmas time, just think, two nice hams, two sides of bacon, pork chops, kidneys, liver, chitterling, trotters, save his blood for black pudding, there’s the phone.”

“In the farmyard, Fly the black and white collie was beginning the training of her four puppies. For some time now they had shown an instinctive interest in anything that moved, driving it away or bringing it back, turning it to left or right, in fact herding it...She set them to work on Mrs Hogget’s ducks.”

But Mrs Hogget wanted to kill Babe. She wanted to make a Christmas dinner for the farmer. One day Babe helped his boss, Farmer Hogget. And he learned to talk to his sheep. Farmer Hogget made a plan. He wanted to take babe to the British Sheepdog Trials.

Lovely story of kindness and consideration trumping bullying and intimidation. Although clearly written in another age it is timeless, without being patronising, suitable for all children.

“All the long summer evening Babe has followed Fly about the yard and buildings, aimlessly, it seemed to the watching farmer, though of course this was not the case. It was in fact a conducted tour. Fly knew that if this foster-child was to be allowed his freedom and the constant reassurance of her company for which he obviously craved, he must quickly learn (and patently he was a quick learner) his way about the place; and that he must be taught, as her puppies had been taught, how to behave like a good dog.”

“You do as I do, ” said Fly, “and you’ll be all rights.” She thought or a moment. “There is one thing though, Babe, ” she said, and she looked across at the back door of the farmhouse, “if I go in there, you stay outside and wait for me, understand?” ‘Aren’t pigs allowed in there?” asked Babe. “Not live ones,” said one of the puppies, but he said it under his breath.

Max is a hedgehog who lives with his family in a nice little home, but unfortunately on the wrong side of the road from the Park, with its beautiful lily pond, and more importantly its juicy slugs, worms and snails!

“Well I suppose it is their business really, Pa, isn’t it?” said Ma. “Or soon will be. They’re abound to go exploring outside our garden before long, and we must warn them.”

“They were sitting in a flower-bed at their home, the garden of Number 5A of a row of semi-detached houses in a suburban street. On the other side of the road was a Park, very popular with local hedgehogs on account of the good hunting it offered.”

“But then another part of him determined to set off to see if he could find this human crossing-place. The street was on a slight slope, and perhaps because of this Max chose to go in the downhill direction.”

He is now a Hodgeheg, not a hedgehog, but he is still determined to fulfill his mission. After some careful detective work, Max eventually discovers the best way to cross the road - with the help of the lollipop lady, of course!

The busy road is a dangerous barrier but Max notices that humans seem to cross it quite easily. If they can, why can’t hedgehogs?

This is an amusing story of a hedgehog family living in Britain. Max, the only boy out of Ma and Pa’s litter of four, is very inquisitive.

So Max sets out on a quest to find a safe way to reach the Park. His first attempt ends in a nasty bump on the head, and Max finds when he tries to speak his words are all mixed up.

“Everywhere’s a bad place to cross nowadays,” said Ma. “The traffic’s dreadful. Do you realize, Pa, that’s the third this year, and all on my side of the family too. First there was Grandfather, then my second cousin once removed, and now poor old Auntie Betty...”

After hearing his parents talking about yet another accident as a hedgehog crossed the road Max is determined to discover a safe way.