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
rngpie's Full Review: E. B. White, Peter F. (AFT) Neumeyer, Edith Goodki...
I have read the book Charlotte's Web and seen the movie. The book I read as a child and the movie I saw as a pre-teen. I loved them both, although both did seem to be an introduction to death.
The book/movie begins with a family that live on a rural farm. The family's sow delivers a load of pigs. All of the piglets are to be sold, but Fern, the youngest daughter, talks her father into letting her keep the runt pig whom she later names Wilbur. Her father allows her to keep the runt with the understanding that it will be she who will be responsible for this pig. So it is Fern who feeds baby Wilbur first with a bottle and then weans him onto regular pig slop. Wilbur becomes Fern's best friend. There are pictures of Fern riding Wilbur in her dolly stroller around the farm. The pictures are adorable.
Once Wilbur gets a certain age, he is moved to the barn. At this time, Fern decided to enter Wilbur into the county fair. In her eyes, Wilbur is the cutest pig there is. The barn is where Wilbur meets Charlotte-a spider, and Templeton-a rat. The story continues with Wilbur becoming friends with Charlotte and Templeton. Wilbur is quick to confess that he is afraid to be entered in the county fair because he can not do anything special. At this time, Charlotte begins making an elaborate spider web. In the web, Charlotte begins stitching words such as 'Exceptional, Outstanding...etc. All of the farmers begin to visit the farm just to see what is going to be written in the web next and to admire Wilbur.
Templeton's major role is in supplying Charlotte with words to write in the web. Templeton does not like to do anything unless he can get something from himself-which is very rat like, so Charlotte convinces him to help by telling him of all the snacks he can eat by getting her the scraps of paper with the words she needs.
At the fair, Wilbur meets many other pigs and makes a few new friends but maintains friendship with Charlotte and Templeton. It is also at the fair that Wilbur finds out that Charlotte is going to die. Charlotte explains that once she lays her sac of eggs, she will die. It is the way of life for spiders. Although, Wilbur cries, Charlotte explains that is the way of life. She also tells Wilbur that she wants him to help look after her sac of eggs until each egg hatches. Wilbur agrees, but takes Charlotte's death uneasily. Templeton even shows some emotions during this scene.
Once Charlotte lays her sac and the eggs hatch, the baby spiders begin floating away on the wind. The baby spiders have no desire to remain with Wilbur and on the farm.
The story is very good and entertaining for pre-teens, although I think that the death issue could have been dealt with differently. At the end Wilbur thinks that he will be taking care of the baby spiders, and in a sense will continue to have a part of Charlotte with him always, instead when the baby spiders are born they choose to leave the farm & Wilbur. In a sense Wilbur loses Charlotte twice.
Being a child of sensitive nature, I could feel Wilbur's pain of losing his friend twice. There was also an issue of where the other farm animals made fun of Wilbur. Once again, I could feel Wilbur's pain of not fitting in no matter how hard he tried.
Although this is a classic story that is timeless, I do feel that the issues of death and not fitting in could have been dealth with in a different manner and yet be still has effective in the storyline.
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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