Charlotte's Web

E.B. White wrote this book to explain death to children, and while death may be impossible for anyone to understand or accept fully, Charlotte the Spider makes a pretty good attempt.

If you read this book to your kids, you will all have Charlotte (and Wilbur and the rest of the farm animals) in your hearts forever. 

This is a beloved read-aloud in our family. My 6-year-old loved how Charlotte saved Wilbur’s life and the true, lasting friendship between the two.

She was always entertained by Charlotte’s speeches and extensive vocabulary. The bittersweet ending is more sweet than bitter for young kids, and the beautiful friendship gets a *chef’s kiss*.

Any book that starts with “Where’s Papa going with that axe?” will surely hold readers’ attention! 

My granddaughter thought the animal characters were cute, and she also liked the message about friendship.

There was plenty of humor, and the bond between Wilbur and Charlotte was touching. This was one of my favorite books when I was her age. I was happy to see she got the same enjoyment from it that I did.

I was probably six or seven when I first read this book and it remains a perennial favourite. It was the first book that made me cry, and I realized the power a simple but well-crafted story can have.

The rural farm setting was particularly appealing to me; it reminded me so much of my own farm childhood. I could so easily relate to Fern, her family, and the various animals. The fact they were sentient beings came as a confirmation to me as someone who spent hours reading my storybooks to the pigs in the farrowing shed.

Charlotte’s Web is not only one of my most favorite and beloved books, but it was my first introduction to death and grief.

As a young girl who had yet to experience the loss of a loved one, the death of kindhearted Charlotte caused intense feelings in my young heart. I processed those feelings along with Wilbur and the characters I had grown to love, as my parents read the book to me.

Charlotte’s Web was also the first book I reached for to help my own kids process big feelings and concepts like grief, loneliness, and what it means… show more.

I recently re-read this book to my daughter, and she was swept away by this magical story set in a farmyard.

When we are young, we can imagine that animals talk and that miracles happen. White doesn’t hold back from the cold hard truths of being a pig on a working farm, but Charlotte’s heroism and kindness towards young Wilbur remind us that true friendship is a miraculous thing.

This is the most beautiful children’s book about friendship. It tells the story of a friendship between Wilbur, a farmyard pig, and Charlotte, a spider. Charlotte is a spider who writes in her web and thereby saves Wilbur from the fate that awaits most farmyard pigs. Children love it for its sensitive portrayal of a warm-hearted friendship—and I love reading it for the beauty of its writing. It is a favourite to read aloud to children from the age of five—and a great first ‘chapter book’ for older children.

This classic children’s story was one of my favorites. E.B. White artfully pulls us into a world where we watch Charlotte, the barn spider, spin a web of magic to save her beloved friend Wilbur, a livestock pig. This is a tale of enduring friendship and loyalty that is both otherworldly and incredible—yet we believe it with all our hearts. As a child, this book captivated me; as an adult, it inspires me. Its mystical gift lies in its ability to transport you into a world where inherent good rules.  

I’m not exactly an arachnophobe, but neither am I a big fan of spiders. Somehow, though, E.B. White was able to take the creepy crawly out of a spider story, and do his best to open closed minds. I know it influenced mine. For several months this past year I shared my writing area with a house spider. I doubt seriously that I would have done that if not for White. Instead of smashing the spider, I observed my office companion. It wasn’t a very clean roommate (I had to clear the area of desiccated insect remains), but at least… show more.

Charlotte’s Web was the first book that made me realize how powerful a book could be, and that was because it made me cry. I was very young at the time, but I remember being so shocked that just a bunch of words on pieces of paper had made me sob! It still makes me cry today. A truly wonderful book.