Charlotte's Web
E.B. White (1952)
“A spider writes words in her web to save a pig — and in doing so, writes one of the most honest books about death ever published for children.”
At a Glance
Wilbur the pig is born the runt of the litter and saved from slaughter by eight-year-old Fern Arable, who raises him by hand. When Wilbur is sold to a neighboring farm, he faces a new threat: he will be butchered in December. His barn friend Charlotte A. Cavatica, a grey spider, saves him by weaving words into her web — SOME PIG, TERRIFIC, RADIANT, HUMBLE — making him famous enough that no one will kill a celebrity. Charlotte dies at the fair, alone, after laying her egg sac. Her children are born in the spring. Three stay. The cycle of the barn continues.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Published in 1952 and has never gone out of print. Has sold over 45 million copies — making it one of the best-selling children's books in history. Routinely appears on lists of the greatest American children's books. Notable for being one of the very few children's books that handles death honestly, without resurrection, without consolation, and without cheating — and that children love anyway.
Diction Profile
Conversational but exact — Strunk and White's 'omit needless words' applied to fantasy. White's prose never wastes a syllable.
Low