Home > Media > Books > E. B. White, Peter F. (AFT) Neumeyer, Edith Goodkind Rosenwald, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress) - Charlotte's Web: Student Packet Grades 3-4
E. B. White, Edith Goodkind Rosenwald, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress) - Charlotte's Web: Student Packet Grades 3-4
Pros: The premier sympathetic spider and lovable pig of children's literature, engaging plot, and beautiful prose.
Cons: It was made into a dreadful movie.
The Bottom Line: My own childhood would have been incomplete without this wonderful tale. Share it with your children to give them a book they'll fondly remember many years from now.
jrk's Full Review: E. B. White, Peter F. (AFT) Neumeyer, Edith Goodki...
What do you get when you combine a sagacious spider and a pure-hearted pig? If you use an economy of words, and write with the gentle prose of E.B. White, you get the children's classic Charlotte's Web. But wait, before I say more . . .
A group of us have gathered here for another of the ubiquitous Epinions write-offs, this time to share our opinions on our most fondly remembered books from childhood. Please join me in learning which books helped shape the personalities you know as: forkids, Leah, gracef, KristinThomas, caconti, cornelia, conradd, stonehousellc, Grouch, auntnono, halfsweet, taurusmoon, DoubleCoog, caravan70, kcfoxy, mshawpyle, sleestakk, kchowell, emlin, CurtisEdmonds, fdknight, WorkingMomof2, expono, kimmiko, Bonies7, pogomom, Redlass, poseidon, sweetpaulie, and ErgoPropterHoc.
Okay, now down to business . . .
Why I Remember This Book
Being a clever little bugger, I had been reading to myself for quite a while by the time I entered third grade, but no one had ever read to me—not until my third grade teacher, Mrs. Savoie, introduced read-alouds into her classroom. Charlotte's Web was one of the first books she read to us. And though I've read thousands of books since that time, Charlotte's Web will always remain very special for me.
Charlotte's Web is a chapter book, and Mrs. Savoie read us exactly one chapter a day. To this day, I still remember the uproar in class when, misty-eyed and tear-choked, Mrs. Savoie finished reading the penultimate chapter and went to close the book. Cries of "Oh, no, Mrs. Savoie, you can't stop now!" came from all around the room. She started to object to our pleas, but then took out a handkerchief, dabbed at her eyes and nose, and carried on reading. I think we all would have gone home terribly distressed that day if she hadn't finished the book. It was kind of Mrs. Savoie to have read us two chapters in one day, but it would have been difficult for her to refuse us this kindness since Charlotte's Web is a book all about kindness, caring, and true friendship.
Spiders, Pigs, and Rats as Protagonists
I have always had a special fondness for dogs and horses. How odd then that my favorite childhood book should not have been Lassie Come Home, The Call of the Wild, National Velvet, or The Black Stallion, but rather a tale with spiders, pigs and rats as protagonists. Go figure!
If you aren't already familiar with E.B. White's Charlotte's Web (is that possible?), you may not want to know the plot details lest the surprises be spoiled. So I will provide only this non-spoiler intro:
Our story begins with the birth of a runt piglet too small to survive without human intervention. Fate smiles on our innocent piglet in the form of Fern, the kind-hearted eight-year-old girl whose pleas save him from the ax. Fern names the piglet Wilbur, and lovingly cares for him until he is too big to keep any longer. Wilbur is sold to Fern's uncle, and Fern goes to visit Wilbur every day. She knows that Wilbur is an innocent, tender-hearted pig who is more interested in love and friendship than food.
Although Fern visits Wilbur daily, he misses the constant love and companionship he has known since birth. One dreadful, rainy day, when Fern will not be able to come, Wilbur sinks into utter despair from boredom and loneliness. Despite Wilbur's polite requests, none of the barnyard animals will play with him or be his friend. Wilbur feels so unloved and lonely that all he can do is cry. (By this point in the tale, my eight-year-old heart was breaking, and the story had only just begun.) But White did not leave me to suffer vicariously too long.
As Wilbur lay sobbing in his manure pile, he heard a small voice. "Do you want a friend, Wilbur?" it said. "I'll be a friend to you." The voice, it turns out, is that of our heroine, Charlotte, a very clever and erudite gray spider.
Wilbur's first meeting with Charlotte has the poor little piggie so confused. He's appalled to learn that Charlotte traps flies, kills them, and drinks their blood. But Wilbur so desperately needs a friend that he struggles to overlook Charlotte's seemingly cruel nature:
"Well," he thought, "I've got a new friend, all right. But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty—everything I don't like. How can I learn to like her, even though she is pretty and, of course, clever?"
Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that so often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end.
With that piece of foreshadowing, E.B. White sets the stage for the story of one of the most beautiful friendships of children's literature. In recounting the tale of Charlotte and Wilbur's friendship, White offers the reader tension, humor, sorrow and joy. It is a tale of love, friendship, reciprocity, tolerance, life, death, and birth that will keep young readers enthralled, and its gentle, poetic prose is guaranteed to appeal to the child in adult readers as well.
The Author
E.B. White passed away in 1985, leaving behind a body of work that included 40 years' worth of columns contributed to the New Yorker and Harper's Magazine. His The Elements of Style (co-authored with William Strunk, Jr.), is perhaps the most useful (and compact) English grammar reference in existence. Despite those grown-up accomplishments, however, it is likely that White will always be remembered best for his contribution to the field of children's literature with Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Charlotte's Web.
The Illustrator
White's wonderful prose in Charlotte's Web is beautifully illustrated with pen & ink drawings by Garth Williams. They are superb. I'm a bit of a purist, and prefer Williams' original black and white illustrations to the new colorized renditions contained in the Harpercollins Juvenile Books collector's edition of Charlotte's Web, in which Williams' illustrations are enhanced by Rosemary Wells' water colors. While Wells' enhancements may be appealing to some, I react to them in the same way I do to Turner colorizing my favorite black & white films. I mean, we're talking about my favorite childhood book, and someone is messing with it! Guess I don't change with the times, since I feel there are just some things that shouldn't be improved. It is still possible to obtain copies of Charlotte's Web with Williams' original black and white illustrations, however, and I would recommend these over the new colorized versions.
After Charlotte and Wilbur, Then What
An animated film version of Charlotte's Web is available on video. While it no doubt will appeal to some viewers, I found it insufferable. The film depicts Wilbur as such a whiner that I would advocate turning him into bacon. And if I were to come across a spider who insisted upon launching into those awful Debbie Reynolds songs, I'd probably go well out of my way to exterminate it. Only Templeton the rat (voice by Paul Lynde) does any justice to White's tale. I'd give a big thumbs down to the film version of Charlotte's Web. Skip it and read the book instead. If you're dead set on a pig film, watch Babe—it runs rings around Charlotte's Web.
And speaking of Babe, for those of you already familiar with Charlotte's Web and searching for another pig as endearing as Wilbur, you might be interested in reading Dick King-Smith's books upon which the movie Babe was based. Both Babe, the Gallant Pig and Babe, The Sheep-Pig are available in hardcover and paperback from amazon.com.
E.B. White's other children's books (Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan) are definitely worth reading, but Charlotte's Web is by far my favorite. It made 3rd grade a magical time for me. It still held its magic when I read it to my own son many years later. And even though I know the story well, it did not fail to bring a tear to my eye when I reread it for this write-off. Guess I haven't really changed all that much since 3rd grade. I'm still a big softy, and I continue to love this book. If you haven't already read this book to your children, do it soon. You might have to give up eating bacon for a while, but you just may be giving them a book they will fondly recall many years from now.
E. B. White, Garth Williams (Illustrator),Hardcover, English-language edition,Pages:192,Pub by HarperCollins Publishers on 05-09-2006More at Barnes & Noble.com
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