Product Description

Some Pig

These are the words in Charlotte's web, high in the barn. Her spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, as well as the feelings of a little girl named Fern ... who loves Wilbur, too. Their love has been shared by millions of readers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1181864 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-01
• Released on: 2003-06-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
E.B. White, the author of twenty books of prose and poetry, was awarded the 1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his children’s books, Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. This award is now given every three years "to an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have, over a period of years, make a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." The year 1970 also marked the publication of Mr. White’s third book for children, The Trumpet of the Swan, honored by The International Board on Books for Young People as an outstanding example of literature with international importance. In 1973, it received the Sequoyah Award (Oklahoma) and the William Allen White Award (Kansas), voted by the school children of those states as their "favorite book" of the year.

Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Mr. White attended public schools there. He was graduated from Cornell University in 1921, worked in New York for a year, then traveled about. After five or six years of trying many sorts of jobs, he joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine, then in its infancy. The connection proved a happy one and resulted in a steady output of satirical sketches, poems, essays, and editorials. His essays have also appeared in Harper’s Magazine, and his books include One Man’s Meat, The Second Tree from the Corner, Letters of E.B. White, The Essays of E.B. White and Poems and Sketches of E.B. White.

In 1938 Mr. White moved to the country. On his farm in Maine he kept animals, and some of these creatures got into his stories and books. Mr. White said he found writing difficult and bad for one’s disposition, but he kept at it. He began Stuart Little in the hope of amusing a six-year-old niece of his, but before he finished it, she had grown up.

For his total contribution to American letters, Mr. White was awarded the 1971 National Medal for Literature. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy named Mr. White as one of thirty-one Americans to receive the Presidential Medal for Freedom. Mr. White also received the National Institute of Arts and Letters’ Gold Medal for Essays and Criticism, and in 1973 the members of the Institute elected him to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a society of fifty members. He also received honorary degrees from seven colleges and universities. Mr. White died on October 1, 1985.

Customer Reviews

Good Story
Having a dual form of dyslexia I did not learn to read until later in life. Thus I never read children's books while a child. Maybe that is why I read so many still today. I read this as part of a children's literature course in university.

It is an interesting book, about friendship, commitment, compassion, change and death. As such it deals with a lot of the big questions of life in ways a child can grasp.

For me the most moving part was when Wilber confessed to Charlotte that he did not like the thought of her as a blood sucker, towards the end of her life. Only true friends can be that open and honest.

The book is a powerful tale of true friendship and how our close friends can transform not only us but those around us.

(First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)

Charlotte's Web
The book of "Charlotte's Web" was very inspiring to us. It taught us that life has hard times, but don't worry about all the bad things in life, focus and live your life to the fullest, and never let anything bring you down. The story of "Charlotte's Web", was about a little pig, that was born a runt. The girl, Fern, would not allow her father to kill the little pig, and she promised to care and love for the pig. She named him Wilbur. Then once the pig was old enough, her father said that he must be given away, so they decided to give it to her uncle, who lived just down the road. She visited him every day, and she also became friends with all of the other animals on the farm. On this farm there was a spider, named Charlotte. She became Wilbur's best friend. Later in the story, Fern's uncle decided to enter Wilbur in the state fair, and he won second place. At the fair, Charlotte made an egg sack, but then, after it was done, she passed away, and from then on Wilbur watched over her eggs, until one summer day, they hatched. There was about 300 hundred spiders, but all of them started to float away. Wilbur suddenly became sad again, but then he noticed there was 3 little spider, who were runts, who stayed with Wilbur at the farm, taking the place in life, of the never forgotten mother, Charlotte.

Never Give Up
Have you ever saved an animal's life? Charlotte's Web by E.B. White was a fun, fictional story about a pig named Wilbur who was saved lots of times from the threat of death. Because Wilbur was the runt, his owner was going to kill him. Fern the farmer's daughter, cleverly stopped her dad and took care of Wilbur. Later, Wilbur moved to her Uncle's house where he met a spider named Charlotte. Charlotte also saved him when the Uncle was going to kill him to eat.
My favorite part happened when Fern's family went to the fair, because the kids explored by themselves and all the people adored Wilbur. All Wilbur's animal friends worked together to help him become the prize pig at the fair, which would save his life.
The theme of this book is never giving up. When the Uncle was going to kill him, Charlotte never gave up. She kept looking for ways to save him.
I used the Paces PAidiea study guide for Charlotte's Web as I studied this book. The study guide includes elements like vocabulary, homework items and journal entries. The homework items showed that even though this is a fictional book, it is full of facts on spiders. I especially liked drawing a comic strip of the spider's process of catching a fly. Using the Paces study guide for Charlotte's Web enhanced my understanding and made it more enjoyable. I recommend reading Charlotte's Web along with the Paces study guide.