Reddit reviews Common Spiders of North America

The identifying features of spiders are more subtle than they are for birds or butterflies - like eye arrangements, length and number of hairs on their legs. Also, consider there are about 900 species of birds in the U.S. vs. about 3,000 spider species. Just trying to help you understand why you're having a hard time finding such a guide.

My favorite spider field guide is the Golden Guide to Spiders and their Kin. Though the book includes spiders worldwide, it focuses on American species, and the description of family features can inform ID anywhere. There is a 1990 edition available in full online. Some of the taxonomic names have changed since then, but you can get the idea. You can't beat it for the money.

I don't have this one, but browsing it, it looks pretty nice.

Otherwise, the technical standard is SONA.

Alternatively, invest in a camera: take pictures and share them with us -- we are always here to help. Bugguide.net has detailed descriptions at almost every taxonomic level.

https://www.amazon.com/Common-Spiders-America-Richard-Bradley/dp/0520274881

Not cheap at all, but I love this book, detailed descriptions and pages of excellent drawings

Here is a great little (PDF) guide for Ohio that covers a lot of common NE species

The 2 most popular books are these:

Common Spiders of North America (Bradley)

Spiders of North America (Ubick, et al.)

The Bradley book is probably the more accessible of the two.

edit: fixed first link

Yeah, Googling is hard without knowing some of the common families and such. There are nearly 50 thousand spiders in the world, and that's a lot to sift through!
Bugguide has some helpful pages, including this one that goes over some of the different eye arrangements you see in North American spider families.
If you're at all interested, there's a very nice new book full of vivid drawings of spiders, would probably be nice to flip through with the kiddies.
Spiders are a fun thing to get into!

Local field guides can be a good investment. One introductory book is Spiders and Their Kin (Golden Guide). Another is Common Spiders of North America.

On Spiders.us, I posted this list of online resources: Spider ID Resources.

The best way to improve is to practice. Try to identify the spiders you find, and submit photos for confirmation/correction of your ID. It's also good practice to try to respond to ID requests on sites like /r/spiders. (If you don't feel very confident in your ID, you can say that.)

If you're not sure how someone reached a particular conclusion, ask for clarification. Many of us are willing to elaborate but just get in the habit of not doing so.

Well if you like in North America you can check out this awesome book! I have it and it is amazing, warning alittle bit pricey.