Charlotte's Web

Author: E. B. White
Copyright Date: 1952
Publisher: Harper & Row
Number of Pages: 184
Reading Level: Ages 9 & Up
Genre: Fiction

Summary

In this book, Fern lives on a farm and one day her dad was going to kill a "runt" pig that they just had. She begged her parents to let her keep the pig and they did; she named him Wilbur. Once Wilbur got to be too big, Fern's parents had her sell Wilbur to her uncle, Mr. Zuckerman. Wilbur went to live on his farm and Fern visited him often, nearly every day. At the farm, Wilbur didn't have many friends and not many of the other animals were nice to him. One day, he hears a voice say that she'll be his friend, and the next morning he discovers this voice to be Charlotte, a spider, and they become fast friends. At one point, Wilbur overhears that he's being fed so well because Mr. Zuckerman is going to kill him--he threw a fit. After this event, Charlotte promised that she would find a way to keep Wilbur safe. Eventually, she comes up with a plan to write words in her web. First she writes, "Some Pig", and everyone in town hears about it--they call it a miracle. Other words she writes in her web were "Terrific", "Radiant", and "Humble". After seeing some of these 'miracles', Mr. Zuckerman decides to take Wilbur to the fair, and he wins a special award--$25, a bronze medal, and a special appreciation for attracting so many visitors to the fair.

Because Charlotte has taken so much time and energy to write these words in her web, she's extremely tired. Also while they're at the fair, she creates her egg sac. She realizes she's going to die and so Wilbur takes the sac back home to the farm, and the next spring the baby spiders finally come out. To Wilbur's disappointment, all of the baby spiders fly away except for three of them. Their names were Joy, Aranea, and Nellie. Each year new spider eggs would hatch and all of the baby spiders would leave except for a few. Wilbur always had a few friends that he could count on, no matter what.

Reaction

I loved this book! It had great imagination, and I loved how the animals talked and were the main characters of the story. Cute story, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Recommendations

I would recommend it to anyone! Any child could enjoy it, boys and girls alike. It's a fun story, easy to read, and just overall very enjoyable!

Problems/Conflicts

I didn't really see any problems or conflicts in this book.