Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web was originally written by E. B. White in 1952 with this version renewed by him in 1980. This is a beautiful story about friendship, love and life between a young girl, Fern, a lovable, little pig, Wilbur and Charlotte, a large spider who lived in the barn with Wilbur.  It is an outstanding narrative fantasy book to be enjoyed by children of all ages!  Preschool teachers can read it to children and primary school-age children will love to read it on their own.  Even though this is a fantasy book, is a written with excellent quality as although it is unrealistic, the characters' feelings, thoughts and behaviors are very believable within the story and all readers will learn from the wonderful messages throughout the story!

Narrative Fantasy

The 47 very detailed black-and-white illustrations throughout the book are excellent with showing the characters' emotions and thoughts and they also describe the storyline so well!  The drawings remind me of the pen and ink work by Peter Sis.

Readers will feel many emotions throughout this book--happiness, sadness, helpfulness, loneliness and learning about the circle of life.  However, I believe children will most love the friendship shared by the characters, enabling them to learn about caring and helping one another, despite their differences.

I so loved this outstanding classic and it certainly represents and upholds the Saint Leo Core Value of Respect with its references to "learning, living, and working harmoniously."  Much of the story can also be related to stories in the Bible regarding miracles, sacrificial love, keeping promises and kindness.

As mentioned, this wonderful book will be enjoyed by all and, as always, if certain areas may be disturbing for younger children, the story can be modified to best fit the needs/interests of the age group.

Class Activities:

1. Briefly discuss the Saint Leo Core Value of Respect in an age-appropriate manner.  Then, ask each child to say something that they have done recently for a friend or family member that was "nice" (with the teacher beginning the activity by saying something she has done).  If a child does not want to participate, tell him/her that's fine and say we "respect and understand" that you may not want to tell us, but we'll come back to you.  If he/she still is hesitant, say you can just think about something nice you "can do" today for someone else.
2. Make up flash cards with words such as sad, happy, lonely, etc., and hand them out to the children. Then, ask each child to tell about a time when they felt that way and how someone helped them when they were feeling this way.  Next, ask the child to select someone in the classroom and have him/her tell the child how they would help them.  Give an example first, for instance, the teacher could say, "Tommy told me he was feeling lonely because his best friend moved away." Then, I would say, "You have so many friends here at school that love playing with you!  Let's play this ball game with Joey and Mary as they look like they need more friends to make the game more fun!" 

Charlotte's Web is a Newberry Honor Book and is classified as outstanding for all age groups.  I believe it is such an inspirational book and all children should read it during their school-age years based on the morale of the story.  All children will be able to relate to the characters and surely learn meaningful lessons and so enjoy the illustrations as an added benefit since they tremendously enhance the content of the storyline.

Other outstanding books by E. B. White:

• Stuart Little
• The Trumpet of the Swan

Reference

White, E. B. (1980). Charlotte's Web. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

very detailed black-and-white illustrations are so appealing and excellent with showing the characters' emotions and feelings along with describing the storyline so well!  The illustrations are comparable to the pen and ink detailed drawings by Peter Sis.