It's
Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
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and #IMWAYR day
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February 24, 2026 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
In the Web of the Spider series, we meet three friends growing up in Heroldsburg, Germany in the late 1920s. Rolf's struggle in Rise of the Spider centered around his brother Romer's involvement with the Hitler Youth, and Ansel's difficulties in Threat of the Spider had to do with his reporter father's opposition to the Nazis, and the trouble it caused the family. In this installment, we see things from the point of view of Joshua. His father is a wealthy banker, but the family is Jewish, and worried about the rise of crime and discrimination against German Jews. Since Rolf's father is taking him to America, where an uncle runs a shoe factory, and Ansel's father is recuperating from injuries, the boys are allowed to go to Salzburg, Austria to stay with Joshua's family at their summer house. The boys are excited to see Salzburg, and spend a bit of time in Munich on the way there. Unfortunately, they run into Romer and his associates with the Hitler Youth, and mention in passing that they are on their way to Salzburg. There, they run into more Hitler Youth, including Otto Koch, who is rather threatening. After settling in to the summer house and seeing sights in the town, the boys ask to be allowed to spend a week camping at the family cabin about ten kilometers away, in an area that is being turned into a national forest. Since they have all been involved in the scouts and have some wilderness training, they are allowed to do this. There is a slight problem when one of the few stores for supplies refuses to serve the group because Joshua and his father are Jewish, but soon the boys are snug in the cabin, fishing for food and having a grand time. When Otto appears in the woods, they know they are in trouble, and must use all of their skills to stay safe. There is a fire set on the cabin's porch, so the boys try to snare Otto and his gang in snares, managing to fling some of them into a pit of poison ivy. The two groups tussle with each other until Rolf opens a box with a snake in it, and is bitten. Joshua and Ansel must struggle to carry their friend down from the mountain to get medical treatment, and are aided by an Alpine rescue team. Rolf is okay, but upon their return, the group finds that there are more Nazi flags flying in Heroldsburg. What will the next book bring?
Most of the middle grade fiction books about World War II in Germany concentrate on the fighting, so I was thrilled to see this series of short books that shows what daily life was like leading up to the war. It's all too easy to see the German society as a monolith that supported Hitler and his regime, but this is far from the case. Ansel, Rolf, and Joshua are all from well-to-do families that are all opposed to the hatred being sown in their society, and all work against it in their own ways. The inclusion of Rolf's brother Romer, who is devoted to the Hitler Youth, shows how divisive the situation was to families, and how this often led to families fleeing the country. Hitler's targeting of Jews hits home when we see Joshua and his family before this happens; we can understand even more just how much they are about to lose.
While all three books cover the politics and history of the time well, they also do a good job at showing the boys having exciting adventures. My students will probably be amazed that they were allowed to spend a week alone at the family's cabin with no supervision, but this seems entirely realistic to me. I had friends who grew up in Germany at about this time, and they told tales of long bike trips with friends, skiing excursions, and other outdoor activities that had no adult supervision! While Otto and his group could have seriously hurt Joshua and his friends (and fully intended to), there is also an element of adventure in the back and forth between the groups. While this was cut a bit short for my taste, it made perfect sense. Each of these books are nice and short, which means that my students finish one and are eager for the next. I'm definitely looking forward to more volumes, and to finding out what happens to each of the characters.
Spradlin has done an impressive amount of research to brilliantly portray not only the politics of this era, but also the everyday life in Germany at the time. I have to admit that when the boys were traveling around Salzburg, I did envision them running into the von Trapp children in the streets! Pair this series with fiction books like Smith's My Brother's Secret or Kessler's When the World Was Oursor nonfiction titles like Bartoletti's Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow or McCormick's The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero. Bartoletti's title includes a photograph of Bonhoeffer's home office which I have always found heartbreaking. This small glimpse of everyday life makes World War II in Germany seem even more crushing, and Spradlin's depiction of Joshua's family gives me the same feeling of devastation.
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