Charlotte’s Web

Charlotte’s Web

Author: E.B. White

Illustrator: Garth Williams
Award: Newbery Medal

Genre: Fantasy and Science Fiction

Grade Level: 3^rd to 5^th grade

The story takes place in a farm that happens to welcome a litter of pig. One pig, Wilbur, turns out to be a runt and is put under the ax. In a nick of time, Fern comes and saves the little pig and promises to take care of him. Wilbur grows big as the day passes to the point where Fern takes him to her uncle's barn thinking that he would be much safer in here. Well, she thought wrong. The uncle too like her parents wants to put poor Wilbur under the ax. Then comes Charlotte, a friendly spider. Wilbur hesitant at first finally becomes her friend when she promises that she will think of a way to save him from Zukerman since he sees Wilbur as a Christmas dinner. Charlotte's trick is to write a word in her web. The first word she writes is ‘Some Pig’. When Zuckerman sees this, he is astonished and tells the whole town how amazing Wilbur is. She then asks Templeton to find her a new word that is even better than the first one. Templeton finds her the word ‘terrific’. She writes TERRIFIC on her web which again astonishes everyone in town. Zuckerman starts to love Wilbur because of all the attention that he has been bringing to his farm. Instead of thinking Wilbur as a Christmas dinner, he enters Wilbur onto a country fair and also gives him special treatment. Charlotte now knows that Wilbur will be safe yet she asks Templeton to find another word that she could write on the web. He finds a word ‘radiant’ which she beautifully writes it. When Wilbur sees the newly written word he feels joyed and starts flipping around. When he finally settles down, he asks Charlotte to tell him a story which she gladly does. She tells him the story about her cousin’s web that caught a fish and also talks about her balloonist cousin. While Wilbur is getting recognized by the villagers, Mrs. Arable is getting awfully worried about Fern. She thinks that Fern is going crazy because she tells her about Charlotte's cousins story. So worried is Mrs. Arable that she goes to see Dr. Dorian who puts her at ease that Fern is completely fine. This relieves Mrs. Arable. Wilbur finally enters the country fair. He is bathed in buttermilk to look clean and perfect. As he is loaded in the crate, Mr. Arable remarks make him faint. Fern runs to his rescue with tears in her eyes showing a great deal of love she has for him. Wilbur gains consciousness and feels much better than Charlotte and Templeton will be joining him at the fair. When he reaches to the fair, he is put beside Uncle, a giant big who is a sure winner. This worries Charlotte, so she thinks about something better and greater of a word to write that will surely impress everyone. She tells Templeton to find him a word, a beautiful word that will be her last one she will ever write. She writes the word ‘humble’ and goes to the corner to lay her eggs which she promises will show Wilbur the next day. The next day Charlotte is a becomes a mother which excites Wilbur, but she tells him that she is becoming ill. Yet she wants to cheer him up, so she tells him that this web was the best web she has ever created. Just when things are about to get better. Templeton comes with a horrible news that Uncle has blue ribbon placed in his pen which means that she has won the prize. This upsets everyone, but Zuckerman asks to help Wilbur look his best. Everyone goes on to work when all of a sudden, they hear that Wilbur is the winner of a special prize. The announcement makes everyone rejoice and celebrate the victory. While they are packing up to go back to the barn, Wilbur notices that Charlotte is awfully quiet. She tells him that she won’t be joining him at the barn. This makes Wilbur cry because he is losing his best friend. Instead, he asks Templeton to get all of Charlotte's eggs so he could take it back to the barn. Templeton brings him the egg which Wilbur puts it in his mouth. He cannot talk so he looks up to Charlotte saying his last goodbye. Charlotte leaves Wilbur with her eggs forever. The eggs make it past the cold winter and it finally hatches. All of the spiders leave except the three daughters of Charlotte, Joy, Aranea and Nellie. This makes Wilbur happy as now he has three best friends who have a little bit of Charlotte.

This book features some illustrations but mainly it is devoted to text.  The illustrations are not colored. The only part of the book that does have color is the cover that features Fern and Wilbur looking up at Charlotte’s web with the other farm animals behind them. Great book! 

Thoughts:

I always wanted a pig as a pet. This story makes me want even more. I must confess that I have never read Charlotte’s Web ever in my life. Ah, I heard about it from many people but never really felt any interest in reading it since I already knew what the ending was. So, when I finally had to read it. I loved it. I cried (silently).  This book has a pack full of moral that young readers would have to think about. Also, this is a great book to read aloud to students. With 22 chapters, I can read one chapter every day when the students are taking nap time (If I am Pre-K teacher). They will fall asleep dreaming about Wilbur and all the other animals on the farm.  Excellent book!