Charlotte's Web (Trophy Newbery) (Paperback)

by E. B. White (Author), Garth Williams (Author) "WHERE'S Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast..." (more)
Key Phrases: barn cellar, spring pig, grey spider, Fair Grounds, Henry Fussy, Uncle Homer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
An affectionate, sometimes bashful pig named Wilbur befriends a spider named Charlotte, who lives in the rafters above his pen. A prancing, playful bloke, Wilbur is devastated when he learns of the destiny that befalls all those of porcine persuasion. Determined to save her friend, Charlotte spins a web that reads "Some Pig," convincing the farmer and surrounding community that Wilbur is no ordinary animal and should be saved. In this story of friendship, hardship, and the passing on into time, E.B. White reminds us to open our eyes to the wonder and miracle often found in the simplest of things.

From Publishers Weekly
E.B. White's enduring classic celebrates in style with the release of the Charlotte's Web 5oth Anniversary Retrospective Edition. The handsome volume sports a clothbound cover framing original jacket art; inside, Rosemary Wells adds country color to Garth Williams's original b&w illustrations. An afterword by Peter F. Neumeyer illuminates White's life and work, including photographs of the author on his farm in Maine as well as pages from the seminal manuscript.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (December 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064400557
• ISBN-13: 978-0064400558
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (441 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,478 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovable pig + wise spider = enduring classic, October 17, 2001

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"Charlotte's Web," by E.B. White, belongs to a special class of literature: a children's book which has much to offer to older teen and adult readers. White's wonderful story is superbly complemented by the charming illustrations of Garth Williams.

As the story opens, eight year old farm girl Fern Arable stops her father from killing a piglet who has been labeled the runt of the litter. The little pig, whom Fern names Wilbur, becomes one of the central figures in the story. Eventually he will be befriended by Charlotte, the wise and loving spider mentioned in the book's title.

White creates a sort of modern animal fable in which his barnyard characters can speak both with each other and with Fern. White's barn is populated with some truly marvelous characters. Special mention should be made of Templeton the rat. Gluttonous, sneaky, often nasty, but curiously sympathetic, Templeton is one of the great anti-heroes in modern literature.

Part of this novel's brilliance is the fact that the author makes a heroine out of a spider: a creature that many people probably regard with fear. Unlike a cute piglet or other barnyard creatures, a spider is a creature vastly different from humans. White's Charlotte is a truly remarkable character. White's witty, compassionate prose style is an ideal vehicle for telling the story of Charlotte and her friends.

"Charlotte's Web" is a masterful blend of whimsy, humor, gentle satire, and life-and-death drama. But above all, it is a powerful story of friendship. Deeply moving and superbly written, this is a book which, I believe, will endure as a treasured classic.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read (or Be Read) This Descriptive Children's Classic, April 3, 2000

By	Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Charlotte's Web Collector's Edition (Hardcover)

Can't imagine saying something about E.B. White's children's classic "Charlotte's Web" that 148 others here (more around the world) have not. But experiencing it twice (having it read to me in fifth grade nearly 30 years ago, and reading it to my daughter recently) has allowed me to greater appreciate the book's meaning and accomplishment.

Many children will never experience life on a farm or visit a county fair (the two major book settings). White and his illustrators picture that life sensually and beautifully. The story of Wilbur (pig) and Charlotte's (spider's)friendship, what she does to save him, the toll it takes on her, and her eventual legacy, recalls the unconditional love mothers have for their children. (Fern, the Arables' daughter who saves Wilbur's life at the start, retreats from the storyline as her interest shifts from animals to boys.)

All this is told amidst word backgrounds of warm summer days, dank cellars, midways filled with discarded food and paper, cellar barns filled by scents of straw, manure, and slops. (Who but White could've described the leftovers fed to Wilbur and actually make them sound delicious?)

White's gift for character also shows most interestingly in the rat Templeton, who many may identify with. Tough, clever, self-serving, defensive, but valiant in the end, he adds much needed sour spike to essential scenes that may have otherwise been too sweet (his negotiation with Wilbur over Charlotte's egg sac is one example) Templeton's self-desciption at book's end of "living for the pleasures of the feast," summarize in a way what makes life and what we do for each other in it worth the trouble. Essential reading for children and adults.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, September 13, 2001

By	Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Charlotte's Web Collector's Edition (Hardcover)

Natural History

The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unwinds a thread of her devising:
A thin, premeditated rig
To use in rising.

And all the journey down through space,
In cool decent, and loyal-hearted,
She builds a ladder to the place
From which she started.

Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do,
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken strand to you
For my returning.

E. B. White, November 1929

As the poem Natural History, written some 23 years before Charlotte's Web indicates, EB White had a long fascination with spiders and their webs and the truth to be discerned in them. In fact, he was enamored of the natural world in general and his desire to be closer to the land led him to move to a Maine farm in 1939. It was in the farm life and specifically in the comfort of the barn that the inspiration for this children's classic came to him :

As for Charlotte's Web, I like animals and my barn is a very pleasant place to be, at all hours. One
day when I was on my way to feed the pig, I began feeling sorry for the pig because, like most
pigs, he was doomed to die. This made me sad. So I started thinking of ways to save a pig's life. I
had been watching a big grey spider at her work and was impressed by how clever she was at
weaving. Gradually I worked the spider into the story that you know, a story of friendship and
salvation on a farm.

From these humble beginnings he wove an enduring tale of love and loyalty, life and death, and, perhaps unnoticed by most of us until adulthood, of the comic ingenuousness of man, and of the value of knowledge and a big vocabulary.

White, renowned as an essayist, wrote so clearly and fluidly that the pages whiz by. And if you get a chance to listen to the audio version that he reads himself, it is the performance of a master storyteller. Though a native New Yorker (Mt. Vernon anyway), White had by then picked up the rhythm and accents of a New Englander. In addition, he tells the story with apparent affection for his creations, love of the barnyard, and amusement at the goings on.

I was trying to figure out what made it all so magical and then I found this quote in which he described his own work (What Am I Saying To My Readers He ?, May 14, 1961, NY Times) :

What am I saying to my readers? Well, I never know. Writing to me is not an exercise in addressing
readers, it is more as though I were talking to myself while shaving. My foray into the field of
children's literature was an accident, and although I do not mean to suggest that I spun my two
yarns in perfect innocence and that I did not set about writing "Charlotte's Web" deliberately,
nevertheless, the thing started innocently enough, and I kept on because I found it was fun. It also
became rewarding in other ways--and that was a surprise, as I am not essentially a storyteller and
was taking a holiday from my regular work.

All that I ever hope to say in books is that I love the world. I guess you can find that in there, if
you dig around. Animals are part of my world and I try to report them faithfully and with respect.

He succeeded quite brilliantly in the task he set himself. I know of no work of literature by any author that better expresses respect for animals and love for the world.

GRADE : A+