Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

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Title: Charlotte's Web
Genre: Fantasy
Author: E.B. White
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Major awards: Newberry Honor Award
Age group: 3rd-5th

Summary
This story follows a special pig named Wilbur.  When Wilbur is born he is the runt of the litter and his fate is to be slaughtered.  With the convincing of a little girl named Fern her father decides to spare Wilbur.  From there Fern and Wilbur become best pals and do almost everything together.  After this Wilbur is moved to Fern's uncles farm to help Fern with the separation because when he is older his fate will still be being slaughtered.  At the farm Wilbur becomes very lonely and misses Fern more than anything.  Luckily after a few days of sulking Wilbur befriends the other animals on the farm.  One animal whom he is the fondest of is a spider named Charlotte. Wilbur soon over hears that winter that he will be slaughtered and in an effort to save Wilbur's life Charlotte agrees to help him  and starts to spin.  Charlotte spins her web into words the first message being "some pig".  Fern's uncle comes out the next morning and sees the message and calls it a miracle.  Each night after that Charlotte continues spinning words above Wilbur's pin and this causes Fern's Uncle to enter Wilbur in the county fair because of how miraculous he is.  Charlotte and their friend Templeton the rat go along with Wilbur to the county fair where he is praised by all who see him.  Unfortunately Charlotte knows she is nearing the end of her life and starts spinning web for a sac that will hold her eggs.  She let's Wilbur know that she will not be going back to the farm with them and entrusts Wilbur with her eggs to take care of and look after.  Wilbur protects her eggs until they hatch, most of them leave but three of them stay behind and befriend Wilbur and live their lives out on the farm just as Charlotte had.
Evaluation
Charlotte's Web was always a favorite of mine growing up.  Going back and rereading it after not reading it for so long was super rewarding and I picked up on elements that I did not as a child.  I really do not think I would use this book in my high school classroom because of the grade level that its suited for as well as for the themes being relatively simple and not as complex as a high schooler should be diving into.

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