The Spider Strikes by Michael P Spradlin

It continues to frighten and infuriate me that books like these aren’t merely a snapshot of a period in time but a very necessary and urgent warning of the road we must not presently travel.

As with the prior books in The Web of The Spider series, set during Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany, we have a different narrator, one of a group of young friends. Joshua Greenburg hasn’t always been aware of antisemitism, growing up in the small town of Heroldsberg. But with Hitler Youth coming to town and the German economy crumbling, it’s nigh on impossible to avoid the way that the Nazis are increasingly blaming Jews like himself for all the troubles befalling the country.

Germany has become so oppressive and awful for people who don’t sympathize with the ruling regime that Joshua’s friend Rolf and his father are planning on moving to America soon. They have family there, and hopefully distance will allow them to get over the heartbreak of losing Rolf’s older brother Romer to Hitler Youth.

Rolf and Joshua have only just helped their other friend Ansel rescue his journalist father from the Nazis. Ansel’s dad’s only crime was in reporting the truth, which has come under increasing attack from the government. It’s been a pretty awful several months for the three friends, who just want to play football, read adventure stories and brush up on their Scouting skills.

In hopes of cheering his friends up ahead of Rolf’s impending departure, Joshua invites Rolf and Ansel to join his family for their summer vacation in Salzburg, Austria. In addition to being able to explore the historic city, the boys have the opportunity to hike out to the Greenburgs’ cabin, in a woodland that the Austrian government is setting up as a recreation and tourism area. It sounds like the perfect last hurrah… until the boys discover that antisemitism has not been contained by Germany’s borders. Worse, the Hitler Youth are present out here on the mountains, too. When a gang of young Nazis decides to target the three friends, will our heroes be able to outwit them and make it safely home?

I have three sons in their young teens, and one of my greatest joys is watching them play together in the forest by our closest creek. I’m very much a free-range mom who encourages my kids, now that they’re old enough, to explore the neighborhood and learn self-sufficiency. One of the happiest days of my parenting life occurred when my eldest was accepted to the magnet high school about a mile down the road, and I could give him a metro card and my blessing to take the city bus whenever he didn’t feel like walking.

But nowadays I worry. With brown-looking kids being snatched off the street and transported miles away by government thugs — at best to be dropped off without their belongings after being roughed up only a little, at worst to disappear into for-profit prisons that are slowly turning into concentration camps — I can’t help but be fearful for my own kids. I badger my eldest to carry his passport card in the wallet I got him for Christmas. My youngest kids have speech delays, which is another source of anxiety should they need to interact with hostile authorities.

Books like this give me some faith that I’m raising kids smart and resourceful enough to survive in a world that feels increasingly dystopian for people who look like us. Michael P Spradlin’s genius with this series lies in how he depicts the horrors as beginning only gradually. Germany didn’t have an example to study of what not to do but the rest of us do. I sincerely hope that the next book in the series — because this one certainly ends on a cliffhanger! — goes back to feeling like a portrait of terrible days gone by and not a warning of what’s next.

Highly recommended for any child and parent concerned about the current state of the world and how history repeats itself.

The Spider Strikes by Michael P Spradlin will be published tomorrow February 24 2026 by Margaret K. McElderry Books and is available from all good booksellers, including