11/4/10

Charlotte's Web

Author: E.B. White


Title: -Charlotte's Web
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Publisher:
HarperCollins

Year: -1952

Format: Audio
Genre: - Newbery
Reading Level: - Assisted Reader
Interest Level: - Baby-Preschool
Topics: -Picture, Pig, Friendship


Summary: This book begins when John Arable's sow gives birth to a litter of piglets, and Mr. Arable discovers one of them is a runt and decides to kill it.  However, his 9 year old daughter Fern begs him to let it live.  Therefore her father gives it to Fern as a pet, and she names the runt Wilbur. Wilbur is a hyperactive and always exploring new things.  He lives with Fern for a few weeks and then is sold to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman.  Although Fern visits him at the Zuckermans' farm as often as she can, Wilbur get lonelier day after day.  Eventually, a warm and soothing voice tells him that she is going to be his friend.  The next day, he wakes up and meets his new friend: Charlotte, the gray spider.  Wilbur soon becomes a member of the community of animals who live in the cellar of Zuckerman's barn.  When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Charlotte has the idea of writing words in her web extolling Wilbur's excellence (such as "SOME PIG"), reasoning that if she can make Wilbur sufficiently famous, he will bot be killed.  Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, Wilbur not only lives, but goes to the county fair-with Charlotte- and wins a prize. Due to the short short lifespan of spiders, Charlotte dies at the fair. Wilbur repays Charlotte by bringing home with him the sac of eggs she had laid at the fair before dying. When Charlotte's eggs hatch at Zuckerman's farm and most of Charlotte's daughters leave to make their own lives elsewhere, three remain there as friends to Wilbur.
Extension Activities:
Write a poem about Wilbur. Start each line with a word that begins with the letter from his name. Use words that describe Wilbur.