Charlotte’s Web in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 21, 2012 Linda Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, newbery-medal-winners, 2021, fiction, middle-grade

I'm in love. Is it sick to love a book? Well, that's a deep subject. Okay, getting down to business here, I'll just say this is my second time to read Charlotte's Web. The first time was in the 1970's long before Goodreads existed, long before the internet even. Back when webs were just webs created by spiders. Way back then I enrolled in a children's literature class at Shasta College in Redding, California. This book was required reading along with A Day No Pigs Would Die and Mr. Revere and I: I'm in love. Is it sick to love a book? Well, that's a deep subject. Okay, getting down to business here, I'll just say this is my second time to read Charlotte's Web. The first time was in the 1970's long before Goodreads existed, long before the internet even. Back when webs were just webs created by spiders. Way back then I enrolled in a children's literature class at Shasta College in Redding, California. This book was required reading along with A Day No Pigs Would Die and Mr. Revere and I: Being an Account of certain Episodes in the Career of Paul Revere, Esq. as Revealed by his Horse. For the record, I appreciated all three books.

I got another copy of Charlotte's Web in September 2020 at a Red Cross center a few weeks after my home (and book collection) burned in a forest fire along with almost 200 other homes. Like a phoenix arising from ashes this little book sat in a box until January when I decided to read it as my first book of 2021, and as part of my 2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge endeavor.

The story starts out with precious little Fern rescuing a newborn pig from certain death just because he was the runt of the litter. She named him Wilbur and under her care he survived, but too soon, her parents decided he had to go live on a nearby farm rather than in their kitchen. Once in the new barnyard, abruptly on page 16, the point of view character changes from Fern to Wilbur, and suddenly there's a talking pig. Not only that, there's talking sheep and geese and even a talking spider. Also (horrors) a talking rat.

At first I wondered why the little girl was named Fern when the title character was Charlotte. It is soon clear that Charlotte is the spider, and of course that makes sense because who else would have a web back in the olden days before the internet? This book was published in 1952 when I was three months old. The following year, 1953, it was named a Newbery Honor Book. [It should have been the winner; the book that took the gold medal that year is rarely remembered these days.] ...more

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May 28, 2013 Erica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, reading-with-rain, 2020

I missed reading this book as a child, but am thrilled to have come back to it as an adult. White's language is beautiful, poetic, fluid, moving, and full of the sense of place and time. It is a rather sad story about friendship, one that got the five year old crying at the end, and angry that I had chosen such a sad story. But the very fact that he felt such emotion and power in the death of the spider, just proves all that much more the moving power of White's language. Because I am sure we/he ...more

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Sep 08, 2008 Suzanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american, read-2005-or-earlier, young-adult, c20-early, own

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Sep 24, 2008 Lori rated it really liked it

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Nov 05, 2008 Jamie rated it it was amazing

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Nov 19, 2008 Jessica rated it really liked it

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Nov 30, 2008 MichelleCH rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, ya-literature

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Nov 30, 2008 Stacy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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Jan 14, 2009 Nanosynergy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: youngadult-children, 100bestnovels-radcliffe, re-read, saw-the-movie-tvshow

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Apr 12, 2009 Stephanie Watson rated it really liked it

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Apr 26, 2009 Missyjohnson1 rated it it was amazing

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May 19, 2009 N.R. Bergeson marked it as to-read

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May 22, 2009 Juliana Philippa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 4-to-5-stars, set-in-usa, 5-stars, classics, young-adult, award-winning, childrens-books, published-20th-century, published-1950s, award-winning-author

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