Charlotte's Web by EB White illustrated by Garth Williams

“Attention, please!” he said in a loud, firm voice. “Will the party who addressed me at bedtime last night kindly make himself or herself known by giving an appropriate sign or signal!”

Wilbur has been wishing, out loud, for a friend. Charlotte quietly says she will be his friend, and she tells Wilbur she will meet him the morning. The lines above are from Wilbur - and yes it is the next morning. He wants to find the owner of the voice from last night. Wilbur is about to meet the most special friend - a spider named Charlotte. 

You are sure to remember the classic opening lines of Charlotte's Web:

Where's Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. “Out to the hoghouse,” replied Mrs. Arable. “Some pigs were born last night.” “I don’t see why he needs an ax,” continued Fern, who was only eight. “Well,” said her mother, “one of the pigs is a runt. It’s very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it.” “Do away with it?” shrieked Fern. “You mean kill it? Just because it’s smaller than the others?”

Think about the fact that Fern is eight years old. When she confronts her father about the new baby pig she sure does use some sophisticated and persuasive language:

“But it’s unfair,” cried Fern. “The pig couldn’t help being born small, could it? If I had been very small at birth, would you have killed me?” Mr. Arable smiled. “Certainly not,” he said, looking down at his daughter with love. “But this is different. A little girl is one thing, a little runty pig is another.” “I see no difference,” replied Fern, still hanging on to the ax. “This is the most terrible case of injustice I ever heard of.”

Fern is also a farm kid. She goes inside and mum has breakfast ready and one of the offerings is bacon! I guess only adults will see this as a little ironic.

EB White is a master of sensory descriptions - take a look at this example:

It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell—as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world. It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope. And whenever the cat was given a fish-head to eat, the barn would smell of fish. But mostly it smelled of hay, for there was always hay in the great loft up overhead.

You could also talk to your writing group about the way EB White makes use of lists in this story:

it was full of all sorts of things that you find in barns: ladders, grindstones, pitch forks, monkey wrenches, scythes, lawn mowers, snow shovels, ax handles, milk pails, water buckets, empty grain sacks, and rusty rat traps.

Flies, bugs, grasshoppers, choice beetles, moths, butterflies, tasty cockroaches, gnats, midges, daddy longlegs, centipedes, mosquitoes, crickets—anything that is careless enough to get caught in my web. I have to live, don’t I?

It was a delicious meal—skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, two pieces of stale toast, a third of a gingersnap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from a noodle soup, the scum off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of the garbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry jello.

Here, in a small clearing hidden by young alders and wild raspberry bushes, was an astonishing pile of old bottles and empty tin cans and dirty rags and bits of metal and broken bottles and broken hinges and broken springs and dead batteries and last month’s magazines and old discarded dishmops and tattered overalls and rusty spikes and leaky pails and forgotten stoppers and useless junk of all kinds, including a wrong-size crank for a broken ice-cream freezer.

I participate in a children's book club on Facebook and the book for June was Charlotte's Web. I'm fairly sure I didn't read this 1952 book as a child - I think I probably first read it in the 1980s. Today, in preparation for participating in the discussion I re-read Charlotte's Web on my bus trip into the city and then finished the final half this afternoon.

I was very surprised about the parts of the story that I had forgotten, and I was also surprised that I didn't have my expected emotional reaction to the death of beautiful Charlotte. This might be my third reading of this classic book. I did talk about Charlotte's Web here on this blog back in 2012. In that past post I shared some text quotes. Today I read this book on my Kindle so I was easily able to highlight passages that resonated with me - and they are quite different from the ones in my previous post. 

There are some rich words used in this book such as these examples: endure, objectionable, meekly, salutations, a jubilee time, sincere, scruples, compunctions, gullible, forsake, and untenable.

And also some words that are sure to be unfamiliar to young Australian children - wheat middlings, popover, midway, hominy, provender, timothy (it's a type of grass used for hay), and Crackerjack.

I had also forgotten the maths references - money given to the children at the fair and the exact number of eggs in Charlotte's egg sack.

Here is another quote that resonated with me:

Wilbur was modest; fame did not spoil him. He still worried some about the future, as he could hardly believe that a mere spider would be able to save his life. Sometimes at night he would have a bad dream. He would dream that men were coming to get him with knives and guns. But that was only a dream. In the daytime, Wilbur usually felt happy and confident. No pig ever had truer friends, and he realized that friendship is one of the most satisfying things in the world.

Companion books:

Aranea

Some Writer

Here are the famous Charlotte's Web quotes that you are sure to recognise:

“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 little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.

Spiro by Anna McGregor

This book completely surprised me. The cover made me think this would be quite a silly story about a funny spider but instead I discovered a story about persistence, patience and perseverance. These are indeed heavy topics but in Spiro this is all told with a light touch and tons of humour.

On the title page Sprio is reading a book - the title is Advanced Web Design. We are off to a good start.

Spiro needs food - a juicy fly or a scrumptious moth, or even a stink bug. I talked about this recently - did you notice I used the word (from the text) scrumptious. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to read heaps and heaps of the BEST picture books to our children - this might be the first time they hear the wonderful word - scrumptious. Then when your child says 'read it again' this word will gradually be one they use in their everyday life or if that seems too ambitious it will be word they recognise and understand. 

Spiro builds his web but unfortunately ... well three times there are three disasters and Spiro misses his prey. I have a little spider like Spiro on my veranda. He builds his web and at night the lights from my windows attract various insects. This is exactly how Spiro succeeds - the family switch on the fairy lights they have draped over the apple tree and "the insects come swarming". 

Spiro is a 2025 CBCA Early Childhood notable title. You can download some teachers notes from the publisher webpage. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything has a very useful Pinterest collection of other picture books about spiders - which of course would be a terrific mini theme for your preschool or kindy class. It would be great to talk about the design of Spiro's web and to compare this with photos of spider webs found in non fiction books in your library [595.79]. With a slightly older group this book could also open up a discussion about prey and predators - eat or be eaten!

A perfect book to share with preschoolers and children up to 7 years old. Reading Time

The CBCA 2025 Early Childhood Picture Book judges in their report about the Notable titles said: The blend of deadpan humour in the written text and slapstick in the illustrations is masterful. 

If you are sharing this book with a young reading companion or in a school library or classroom you MUST also look for this wonderful Australian book about a spider who spins her web. In 1976 Aranea was a Picture Book of the Year commended title. I do wish the publishers would consider bringing it back into print - this year would be the perfect time because Aranea was published in 1975 - so this is the 50th Anniversary.  

Aranea

You could also share these books:

Here are some other books that you will find in your local or school library by Anna McGregor:

The rescuer of Tiny Creatures by Curtis Manley illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins

Roberta sees the world in a different way - she notices the tiny creatures that everyone else seems to ignore or avoid or worse.

"I rescue tiny creatures. It's a special job. A job no one else seems to care about."

She rescues tiny caterpillars, earth worms, spiders and I love her words to the ladybird:

"I carry the ladybug outside. Fly away home, I whisper. And it does."

There is a bit of a nasty bite from a dragonfly and sadly sometimes she is too late for some of these tiny creatures. But the dead bumblebee and beetle are good to study under her microscope.

Then one day the classroom wall is covered in hundreds of spiderlings. Luckily Roberta is brave and clever, and she knows exactly what to do. She shows everyone how to fold small origami boxes (instructions in the back of the book) and one by one each child watches the tiny spiders climb inside. Then the children watch a miracle of nature when, on the roof of their building, the children set the little baby spiders free. Each unfurl their spider silk and they float away like balloons to "new homes far away." While all of this is happening, one little girl in the class - Maria - is clearly not afraid. The next day Maria and Roberta have a conversation about a honeybee named fluffy. Roberta has found a true friend. The final scenes will make you laugh out loud and on the final page there is the promise of a third friend too. 

Here is the Kirkus review. Read more review comments on the web page of Curtis Manley. This is a book that children in preschool, Kindergarten and Grade One are sure to enjoy. 

You could pair this book with a poem I once taught my Grade Three class:

Hey, Bug! by Lilian Moore

Hey, bug, stay!
Don't run away.
I know a game that we can play.

I'll hold my fingers very still
And you can climb a finger-hill.

No, no.
Don't go.
Here's a wall - a tower, too,
A tiny bug town, just for you.
I've a cookie. You have some.
Take this oatmeal cookie crumb.
Hey, bug, stay!
Hey, bug!
Hey!

And here are a couple of other special poems about insects and minibeasts:

Hurt no living thing by Christina Rosetti

Hurt no living thing:

Ladybird, nor butterfly,

Nor moth with dusty wing,

Nor cricket chirping cheerily,

Nor grasshopper so light of leap,

Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,

Nor harmless worms that creep.

The Bug by Marjorie Barrows

And when the rain had gone away

And it was shining everywhere,

I ran out on the walk to play

And found a little bug was there.

And he was running just as fast

As any little bug could run,

Until he stopped for breath at last,

All black and shiny in the sun.

And then he chirped a song to me

And gave his wings a little tug,

And that's the way he showed that he

Was very glad to be a bug!

Ladybug by Joan Walsh Anglund

A small speckled visitor

Wearing a crimson cape.

Brighter than a cherry

Smaller than a grape.

Tiny Ladybug

A polka-dotted someone

Walking on my wall.

A black-hooded lady

In a scarlet shawl.

A Dragonfly by Eleanor Farjeon

When the heat of the summer

Made drowsy the land,

A dragon-fly came

And sat on my hand,

With its blue jointed body,

And wings like spun glass,

It lit on my fingers

As though they were grass.

Lucy Ruth Cummins is the illustrator of another book I really love:

Cobweb Christmas: the tradition of Tinsel by Shirley Climo illustrated by Jane Manning

Do you put tinsel on your Christmas tree? Have you ever wondered why? How wonderful to discover this tradition is linked with a Ukrainian folk tale. Cobweb Christmas is one possible retelling of this tale. Ukrainians often include a spider as a decoration on their Christmas tree.

Tante prepares for Christmas. She lives alone with only her pets and farm animals for company but on Christmas eve each year the village children come to see her decorated tree. Each year she works hard to prepare for this event. The house is thoroughly cleaned and special decorations are baked. 

"Tante made cookie for the tree. She baked gingerbread boys and girls. She rolled sugar cookies shaped like new moons and cut cinnamon-cookie stars. She rubbed apples until they gleamed like glass to hand from the branches too."

Cleaning up the house means Tante needs to sweep away all the cobwebs. She swishes every spider out the door.

It is the tradition in this village that the children leave their shoes by their doors so Kriss Kringle can tuck a gift inside each shoe. On the evening of this particular Christmas Kriss Kringle meets all the displaced spiders. They explain that they just want to see the beautiful Christmas tree in Tante's house. Kriss Kringle opens the door so there is a small crack for the spiders. They scurry inside the climb all over the tree leaving a trail of their webs. Kriss Kringle returns to close the door and sees all the webs on the tree. 

"He knew how hard the old lady worked to make Christmas and how dismayed she'd be when she saw her tree. But he didn't blame the spiders for being curious. Instead, he decided to leave a special gift for Tante too. Gently Kris Kringle touched each week. Beneath his finger, the slender strands gleamed like gold and the dangling threads sparkled like silver."

Huge thanks to my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything for sharing this book with me. Take a look at her post about other Christmas folktales.

Sadly all of these books are now out of print but you might be lucky and find one in a library. I did find a video version of Cobweb Christmas. It does not quite have the same magic as reading the print book but it will give you a good idea about the story and the illustrations by Jane Manning. Here are another two books which explore this theme.

Aranea A story about a spider by Jenny Wagner illustrated by Ron Brooks

I have been collecting and reading past CBCA treasures - books that were short listed or won prizes since these awards began either in the Picture Book of the Year category or Early Childhood Picture Book of the Year.

Yesterday I talked about a brand new book Leaf Stone Beetle. I just sat down to talk about Aranea and realised this is a perfect companion book so I will go back and add this title to my previous post.

Let's begin with the title - Aranea. This is the name given to the genus of orb-weaving spiders or more correctly this group are called araneus.  It is also the name of the famous spider in Charlotte's Web (1952). Aranea by Jenny Wagner was short listed by the CBCA in 1976 so this is just an interesting side fact not a link.

Aranea is a wonderful demonstration of how text and illustrations should work in a picture book. I like to imagine Ron Brooks sitting down with Jenny Wagner's words and thinking about what to do. He started this book straight after finishing The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek. In his own book Drawn from the Heart Ron Says:

"it is a beautiful clear story about a spider weaving its web, living its life, night to day, day to night, putting up with difficulties, setbacks, doing it all again but it was also ... a classic allegory ... about the qualities of character, especially the courage and perseverance on might bring to the life lived."

One aspect of Aranea that the publisher debated with Ron was his choice of black and white. This was the choice also for Leaf Stone Beetle. Ron wanted this because of the "apparent colourlessness and fineness of spiderwebs themselves." He also wanted to text to work its magic and not have the illustrations be a distraction.

For me the magic of this text comes from giving the full focus to Aranea and her work and not once talking about the purpose of the web to catch prey. I also love the quietness of the story and the amazing work ethic and perseverance of little Aranea as she copes with mindless destruction by two boys and the ravages of a massive storm. "Then all at once the sky cracked open. It split from top to bottom, like a rotten orange thrown against at wall."

One thing I discovered about Aranea is the length. A standard picture book is 32 pages but Ron didn't make a dummy prior to working on his illustrations.  He decided to work with the rhythms and natural breaks in the text which meant Aranea ended up with 36 pages. I am so glad the publisher allowed him to keep it this way and not reduce the format back to 32. In terms of visual literacy, as with other books illustrated by Ron Brooks, you should to notice his use of white space, framing, images contained in circles, the way the web construction is sequenced, his use of whole pages to echo the shock we feel when the boys destroy her web and finally the page with no illustration just white text on a black background. If you have this book in your school library go back and look again.

Aranea is a circle story or the more official term is it uses 'bookending' or that the story is 'bookended'. 

Here is part of the early text:
"First the cross piece
then the frame
then round and round the long spiral
until it was perfect."

This is repeated on the final page where we see at last the completed web with Aranea herself sitting triumphant right in the centre.

I adore Aranea but once again the Kirkus reviewer in 1979 doesn't seem to understand anything about this book. It would be good to use this review as a discussion point with a class of older students perhaps in an art or design class.  One more thing you might like to share with your students. When Ron illustrated Aranea he drew an illustration to be used on the end papers. The publisher did not make use of this but it inspired Jenny Wagner to write her famous book John Brown, Rose and the Midnight cat.

The magnificent nose and other marvels by Anna Fienberg illustrated by Kim Gamble

In 1992 The Magnificent Nose and other marvels was short listed for the CBCA awards.  It is a collection of five enchanting short stories featuring characters with special gifts.  Linking each story is a special spider called Aristan.

I thought of this book this week as I was re-reading The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo.  I saw The Snow Spider in my local second hand bookshop and I remembered enjoying it years ago.  You can read the plot here.  I did enjoy this story of healing and magic but not enough to buy a new copy for our school library. It seemed a little contrived the way the stranger Eiryls is able to heal the grief of this family following the disappearance of their daughter Bethann.  This review sums up my feelings.

The magnificent nose on the other hand is a fabulous book and one I love to read aloud.  My favourite story in the collection is Ignatius Binz and his magnificent nose.  Ignatius comes from a family of perfume makers.  He has inherited a brilliant nose but he is not content to stay home and continue the family tradition. He longs for adventure. "...alone in his room at night, Ignatius wondered if there mightn't more to life than perfume. It wasn't very exciting, he thought, to sit in an office with a lot of test tubes. And was it, Ignatius wondered deep in his soul, very useful?"

Aristan encourages Ignatius to follow his dream. He sets of to see the world until is nose detects danger in the city. Ignatius alerts the fire brigade and saves the city and in turn finds his place in the world. "... up here on the tower I can sniff out trouble before it gets started. I deal in fires, floods and any number of Natural Disasters.".

This book would be a perfect family read-a-loud for young children aged 6 to 9.  In addition to the book I also have a CD read by Anna Paquin.  I find this strange but The magnificent nose even has a Wikipedia entry.  My copy has a different cover but I was not able to find a image of this to share with you. If you are in the mood for a magical book with charming Kim Gamble illustrations look for this book in your library today.

Charlotte's Web by EB White illustrated by Garth Williams

“At last Wilbur saw the creature that had spoken to him in such a kindly way. Stretched across the upper part of the doorway was a big spider’s web, and hanging from the top of the web, head down, was a large grey spider. She was about the size of a gumdrop. She had eight legs and she was waving one of them at Wilbur in a friendly greeting.”

Yes I have just re-read Charlotte’s Web and once again marveled at the storytelling, the rich vocabulary and the precious words of wisdom this deservedly famous book contains.

Rather than talk about the plot for Charlotte’s web I thought I might quote a few of my favourite passages:

“If Fern took her doll for a walk in the doll carriage, Wilbur followed along. Sometimes on these journeys, Wilbur would get tired, and Fern would pick him up and put him in the carriage alongside the doll. He liked this and if he was very tired, he would close his eyes and go to sleep under the doll’s blanket. He looked cute when his eyes were closed, because his lashes were so long. The doll would close her eyes too, and Fern would wheel the carriage very slowly and smoothly so as not to wake her infants.”

“I’m very young. I have no real friend here in the barn …(then) out of the darkness, came a small voice he had never heard before. It sounded rather thin, but pleasant. ‘Do you want a friend, Wilbur?’ it said. ‘I’ll be a friend to you. I’ve watched you all day and I like you.”

“Well,’ he thought ‘I’ve got a friend, all right but what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty – everything I don’t like.’… Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end.”

“Never hurry, never worry.”

“The meeting is now adjourned. I have a busy evening ahead of me. I’ve got to tear my web apart and write TERRIFIC.’ Wilbur blushed. ‘But I’m not terrific, Charlotte. I’m just about average for a pig.’ ‘You’re terrific as far as I’m concerned,’ replied Charlotte, sweetly, ‘and that’s what counts. You’re my best friend, and I think you’re sensational. Now stop arguing and go get some sleep!”

“Why did you do all this for me?” … ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. … By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

If you love Charlotte’s web you must read another book by EB White called The Trumpet of the Swan. You would also enjoy A rat's tale by Tor Seidler …. and Mrs Fribsy and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O’Brien.

Finally in as a delightful little example of serendipity as I was reading Charlotte's Web I chanced upon the list of 100 greatest children's books and Charlotte is number one!! I was quite pleased to see I had read about half of these although sadly only one Australia book is mentioned. Lists are always problematic. Who wrote the list? How did they select these books? Who is the intended audience? Lists are out of date almost as soon as they are devised. I know whenever I write a list it always contains the last two or three books I have read - kind of like a little time machine. There are endless references to Charlotte's Web on the internet if you need teaching ideas.