Charlotte's Web

[Alyeska]

I'm just curious...we are nearly done with this book and I am so relieved. My kids like it and I do not. I have gotten the impression that it is a 'highly recommended read' and I don't understand why.

 

Let's see if my poll works...

Edited January 14, 2012 by Alyeska

[twoxcell]

I voted we all liked it! For me I like it because it was the first chapter book I remember reading as a kid. It is definitely not my favorite read aloud that we have done though.

[jhockley]

Same here, I didn't necessarily enjoy it from an adults point of view, but it brought back childhood memories.

[Aurelia]

I personally have read it and liked it, but I haven't read it to Ariel. She loved the movie when she saw it, so I imagine she would like it.

[Mrs. A]

We enjoyed it. In fact the dc enjoyed it so much that we read it 3 times through beginning to end and have read solo chapters here and there as well. After awhile I had to hide it because I wanted to just move one to something else!

[kokotg]

You didn't have a poll option for "it's the most beautifully written book in the history of children's literature, and I can't read the last page without sobbing like a baby." So I picked the first thing :)

[Jess4879]

We read it last year and the kids really liked it. It is not my favorite story at all, but I did get enjoyment out of it simply because my kids were so interested in it. If I never have to read it again - ever - that would be ok with me.

[SorrelZG]

My son loved it. I like it in a sense. In another, I find it depressing.

 

eta: my appreciation for it is for it's literary quality. I haven't read it recently enough to be able to flesh out the why behind finding it depressing. We listened to the author read it via audiobook. All I remember is that it was both beautiful and dark to me during the time I heard it.

Edited January 14, 2012 by SCGS

[Walking-Iris]

Wow!!! I have read this out loud more times than I can count since my nearly 9 year old was 4. This is one of our favorite stories. My ds has read it on his own numerous times, we watch the movies, we love it!

 

EB White is a genius imo. Every time I get to the end my ds always says the same thing --"don't cry mama" with a lot of giggles. And no matter how many times I read it, I always cry at the end---always. (Same with House At Pooh Corner---the kids like me reading that over and over because I get so choked up)

 

The themes are so universal no matter what age. Justice, fairness, friendship, love, cycles of life and death, time, the importance of even the little things in nature, the bittersweet feelings of a parent watching a child grow up, imagination, it goe son and on.

 

I really feel myself expanding inside whenever I read it. I would put it on my Top 5 list of the best children's books....ever.

[WeeBeaks]

All the kids in our house have always liked it so far (some too young yet to understand it!), but I'm just so-so. It's okay but not my favorite, don't love it or hate it.

[Acorn]

You didn't have a poll option for "it's the most beautifully written book in the history of children's literature, and I can't read the last page without sobbing like a baby." So I picked the first thing :)

:iagree:

 

Wow!!! I have read this out loud more times than I can count since my nearly 9 year old was 4. This is one of our favorite stories. My ds has read it on his own numerous times, we watch the movies, we love it!

 

EB White is a genius imo. Every time I get to the end my ds always says the same thing --"don't cry mama" with a lot of giggles. And no matter how many times I read it, I always cry at the end---always. (Same with House At Pooh Corner---the kids like me reading that over and over because I get so choked up)

 

The themes are so universal no matter what age. Justice, fairness, friendship, love, cycles of life and death, time, the importance of even the little things in nature, the bittersweet feelings of a parent watching a child grow up, imagination, it goe son and on.

 

I really feel myself expanding inside whenever I read it. I would put it on my Top 5 list of the best children's books....ever.

 

:iagree:

[EmilyinND]

We all love this book!

[reign]

I like the book. The girls did not like it from the very becoming. I dropped it and will start it at a later time.

[TheAutumnOak]

We all loved this book...I think it is a great story of friendship and compassion...

[MerryAtHope]

We all enjoyed it a lot, but my dd enjoyed it so much that for a year or two afterward she daily drew spiderwebs in her math book. She would find numbers or patterns and draw lines between them and where they all crossed she would create a web, and often draw Charlotte...sometimes an unfortunate fly as well, LOL!

[Heidi]

My kids would groan every time I would try and play the book on cd. :( I loved it though!

[lmrich]

Really? The bit on friendship is beautiful. The way Fran grows up so quickly! So much to love...so much truth in a pigpen.

[In the Rain]

I didn't really care for it. One dd loved it and the other did not. I voted other.

[RootAnn]

And no matter how many times I read it, I always cry at the end---always.

 

:iagree:

 

I'll be pulling it back out to do as a read aloud sometime next year. DS#1 & dd#3 were too young the last time to remember it. While it isn't my all time favorite, I do enjoy it. I just need a few years break between read-alouds. (Same with Little House on the Prairie & Anne of Green Gables.)

[Farrar]

I think it's one of those rare books that's so good it can be read first as a read aloud to a relatively young child just for the story and then later by a child as an independent read for a greater appreciation of the depth of the messages and the language.

 

No book is for everyone though. If someone was reading it and the kids and the parent didn't love it, I wouldn't keep reading it myself, not even if it was William Shakespeare or anything else universally lauded.

[pitterpatter]

Hate it...always have. Stuart Little too! :tongue_smilie:

[KathyBC]

We liked this title, loved Trumpet of the Swan, but found Stuart Little a little odd.

[boscopup]

I haven't read it out loud, but my son read it last year. He wasn't crazy about it, but he's more of a non-fiction guy.

[zenjenn]

I love E.B. White. We have read Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Stuart Little. I think his books are perfect for the young student who is a proficient reader and is beyond simple chapter books and picture books, but not quite ready for the weight and gravity of books intended for the late elementary/middle school crowd. There are LOTS of books in that gap, nut most are fluffy. White's books have quality language, strong but sweet themes, wit, etc.

Edited January 14, 2012 by zenjenn

[Grover]

This was the first "real" chapter book my DS read on his own. He came to me with tears running down his face and whispered "she's going to die", climbed into my lap and read the last of the book, snuggled in for a cuddle for a while, then wiped his tears and turned back to the beginning and started reading again. After a few pages he stopped and said, "she's going to die again. But her babies are there after her, it's ok" jumped off and went off again. I think he's read it at least a half a dozen times since then.

 

I don't like it as much as he does, but I do like it.

[Alyeska]

You didn't have a poll option for "it's the most beautifully written book in the history of children's literature, and I can't read the last page without sobbing like a baby." So I picked the first thing :)

 

:lol:

[Alyeska]

Wow I am surprised at the poll results thus far! I didn't realize so many folks loved this book.

 

 

One thing I do appreciate about the book is the author's use of vocabulary. My ds has learned some new words, which is fantastic.

[zenjenn]

E.B. White is sneaky like that. Tons of words introduced in Trumpet of the Swan, too ;).

[nansk]

My dd liked the book until she realized Charlotte was going to die. We had to stop reading that time. I recently insisted that we should finish the book and we did, but her heart wasn't in it.

[suppleasthewind]

We loved it but I couldn't read the end when Charlotte dies. I kept getting all choked up. I told the boys I was probably going to cry but was going to plow through it anyway. They told me they didn't want to see me cry so we never finished it.

[Jenny in Florida]

You didn't have a poll option for "it's the most beautifully written book in the history of children's literature, and I can't read the last page without sobbing like a baby." So I picked the first thing :)

 

 

What she said.

 

I , too, picked your first option, but it's not really enough.

 

I read "Charlotte's Web" as a kid, and I loved it!

 

I've read it to each of my kids, and both of them loved it.

 

Just a warning, though: I point to that book as the beginning of my journey towards veganism.

[QuirkyKapers]

We read it and liked it.

[TracyP]

You didn't have a poll option for "it's the most beautifully written book in the history of children's literature, and I can't read the last page without sobbing like a baby." So I picked the first thing :)

 

:lol: Yep.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I voted we all liked it! For me I like it because it was the first chapter book I remember reading as a kid.

 

:iagree:

 

I was given this book for my seventh birthday in a boxed set with Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan. Those three books made me a reader. I lived in those novels that summer, talked about them all year. My oldest son might have been a Fern if he'd been a girl.

 

My sons have all enjoyed them, too, not quite as much. They're not exciting but they have so much simplicity and heart.

[lbakos]

We all love CW here. Read it with my kids 3 times last year. (Okay the last time I was over it) But still, it's considered a classic in our house.

[kolamum]

Hate the book. Hate the movie. Never read it to my kids. :D

 

My kids know it's a book, and have seen the movie. They are so-so on the movie.

[KrissiK]

We read it. We liked it. I cried when Charlotte died. But we didn't love it. We're not huge fans of E.B. White anyhow. Hated Stuart Little.

[Jay3fer]

Stuart Little was weird - a little too open-ended for me. :-)

(but in this blog post, I mention an interesting literary conversation with my 6-yo where she seems to have arrived at some interesting answers about this strange book)

 

But Charlotte's Web??? Don't be dissin' Charlotte. One of our favourites here, and the kids loved it, too.

My 3-yo at the time kept making me flip back to show him the picture of Avery; by the end it was a joke.

 

So - he might tell you there were not enough pictures, but we loved the story, and I found it to be exceptionally well-written. I'm actually a little mystified, because it's a pretty straightforward, even archetypal friendship tale... but then, that's just me. YMMV, as, apparently, it has. :-)

Edited January 15, 2012 by Jay3fer

[SweetMissMagnolia]

read it as a kid and saw the movie version too...I guess I remember enjoying it as a kid-don't think it was one of my faves LOL but then instead of story books I would be flipping through egyptology/egyptian history books at that this age....kiddo liked it when he read it back last year....but definately not a fave...