Charlotte's Web
Ratings491
Average rating3.9
Harmless enough tale. Did not care for the repetitious sentence structures, bracketed word definitions, occasionally uncharacteristic dialogue from the characters, the negative portrayal of the rat, and the extremely basic plot. I don't think the fact that it is a book for children excuses it of all of these points.
Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Rounded up to 4 stars
Charlotte's web is an interesting look into friendships, the reality of life, death, and on some levels, could be taken as a comment on how we treat animals and in what things we see value (Wilbur was told he wouldn't be killed for food simply because he was special or clean). I don't know if that was E.B. White's intent, but it definitely could be analyzed in that regard.
It's a simple story. Girl gets pig, pig is lonely, meets an unlikely new friend, spider works to save pig's life by weaving a web, spider weaves egg sac and dies, and pig remembers his friend fondly while getting to know friend's children. It encapsulates a lot of topics for such a simple story.
Overall, not anything AMAZING in my mind, however, it has its strengths and is a classic story that continues to teach and highlight important topics for children and adults alike.
My son loves this book. It raises interesting questions around life and death, but also has some good lessons around love, loyalty and friendship.
I really liked this book as a child, still doesn't make me like spiders though.
“We are aeronauts and we are going out into the world to make webs for ourselves.” “But where?” asked Wilbur. “Wherever the wind takes us. High, low. Near, far. East, west. North, south. We take to the breeze, we go as we please.”
It's a cute story of friendship and loyalty. A lovely tale that I read as a child, but wanted to revisit as an adult.
⭐⭐⭐
This book is good and worth reading. I enjoyed it but it felt a little lacking. I may recommend it to a certain audience. It gave me mixed feelings, possibly with potential it didn't quite live up to. It's a good experience, not amazing, but not bad.
This made me think that I need to read more about friendship because I really lack that at the moment.
Sweet story with some questionable passages (references to guns, knives, dying alone).
It's a fun little classic about love and friendship. Can't believe I ever missed when the doctor created the FernxHenry ship
It embarrasses me how much I despise this book. However, there are many great nuggets in here for teachers of the younger ones. My high school kids would just laugh.
My boyfriend thinks he's Charlotte and I'm Wilbur. --For the last time, baby, we're not.You don't get to die and leave me behind to look after the children, Dumbledore. --
Finished reading this aloud to my kids about a week ago. I'd previously read it when I was ten years old. They enjoyed it but we all thought it was sad when Charlotte died. It's interesting to get to the subject of death when talking with your kids. I stopped myself from quoting the movie Rango: “Circle of life!”
My first thought upon finishing the book: “So that was it?”
Perhaps I have been accustomed to children's books either having lots of plot or having lots of secret wisdom about life or love. But that really is the symptom of adults reading children's books to find adult reflections on love and loss.
Firstly, that cover truly depicts the deception of the book. The girl who had a pig. From the first page you would have thought this book would be about the friendship between Fern and Wilbur the pig. But eventually it was the spider who saved Wilbur multiple times but recognised only, in Charlotte's words, was “to a small degree”. You might not have noticed the spider on the cover if you didn't read the book. And Templeton the rat who ran much errands for them isn't even on the cover. “I notice that it's always me you come to when in trouble. But I've never heard of anyone's heart breaking on my account. Oh no. Who cares anything about old Templeton?”
Upon some reflection, I think the beauty of this book boils down to these:
1) A simple, innocent and giving friendship between imperfect characters.
- Wilbur is whiny, yes. But he is also a rather ignorant, young pig. Nevertheless, he understood and treasured the friendship he had with Charlotte.
- “You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a while, we die.”
2) Small, understated and positive observations about life that does not revolve around the self, nor have bittersweet undertones.
- “Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or hatch.”
- Love, whether for a friend or others, entails giving. Wilbur and Charlotte do not proclaim love but they showed it in how they treat each other - by acting on it.
3) Great descriptions about the seasons and surroundings. It's almost poetic how E.B. White describes the setting. There is so much richness to the description.