Giving Charlotte's Web a rest

Teaching Pre K-8, Nov/Dec 1997 by Hurst, Carol Otis

Exploring alternative versions as research tools gives new insight into a literary classic.

Some time ago I suggested that we declare a moratorium on Charlotte's Web (HarperCollins, 1952, ISBN 006-026385-7). Not that it wasn't a superb book, but because we were overusing it. By the time some kids got to sixth grade, they had heard the book six times. No book could stand up to that kind of use, so I thought we should put it away for a while to give it time to be fresh for a new generation of kids. Now's the time.

Treat yourself to Peter F. Neumeyer's The Annotated Charlotte's Web (HarperCollins, 1995, ISBN 0-446183-1). There's terrific background information on E. B. White and the annotations in the margins bring new insights and perspectives. Who noticed that the Arables were serving bacon that morning when Wilbur first entered the kitchen? Who thought about the meaning of the name Arable? Neumeyer compares events and descriptions to those in White's earlier drafts and we see the delicate craftsman that he was. This is a treasure for literature buffs on any level.

Literature groups. Having treated yourself to Neumeyer's contribution, can we turn Charlotte's Web into a research and literary theme for upper elementary kids? They'll need to read the book (many will have already done so), but if you use it for literature groups, other children will be discovering it for the first time.

Use the annotated version to discuss things about the book: places where the pacing is especially fine, subtle changes in the characters as the plot progresses and choices of the precise words White used.

Neumeyer tells us that White wrote a list of what was important about Charlotte's Web to keep himself from straying too far from the point. What list do you and the kids come up with? This is one of those rare books in which the themes are deep, but not deeply hidden. Get the kids focusing on the author's intent. What does White want us to know?

Research. When the literary value of the book has been explored, move into research. Suggest the kids continue the literary angle by reading work containing one or more of the research topics. We'll suggest some as we go along.

We'll need to start with White's farm in Maine because that's what inspired White and that's where Wilbur thrives. Using the descriptions of the farm from the book, is there a farm with a similar appearance within driving distance of your school? If so, take a field trip there. Many of the kids haven't visited a farm since a first grade field trip and now they can see it differently and ask new questions.

Start a list of outbuildings on farms and farm-related vocabulary: silo, corncrib, spreader, harrow, and silage. Suggest that kids illustrate the list rather than just define it.

Look for literary farms: Gary Paulsen's The Winter Room, particularly the introduction (Orchard, 1989, ISBN 0-531-08439-6); and Robert Newton Peck's A Day No Pigs Would Die (Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-679-85306-5). All are good, strong books with terrific descriptions of farms. Look at Ned B. Halley's Farm (Knopf, 1996, ISBN 0679-88078-X), a non-fiction source which breaks farming into sections. For example: tractor, plow, fields and soil, etc. Each section addresses basic information about the history of that part of farming and brings it up to the present.

Look at Donald Hall's The Farm Summer 1942 (Dial, 1994, ISBN 08037-1501-3). This New Hampshire farm is seen through the eyes of Peter whose father is on a destroyer in the Pacific and whose mother works on a secret government project. Peter spends the summer with his grandparents on the farm and takes comfort in the routines of the farm and the support of his extended family. After all, New Hampshire isn't that far from Maine and 1942 is just ten years before the publication date of Charlotte's Web although it seems timeless.

Go for the facts. Dick King-Smith wrote Babe, the Gallant Pig, but he also gave us All Pigs Are Beautiful (Candlewick, 1993, ISBN 1-56402148-3), a picture book in praise of pigs, which gives lots of information about the species. We'll need this information to list the animal characters in Charlotte's Web, choose our favorites and go for the facts. Find out facts such as: when does a pig become a hog? What's the life span of a pig? How do pigs fit into the food chain?

Turn to spiders. Look at Mavis Jukes' Like Jake & Me (Knopf, 1987, ISBN 0-394-89263-1). It's a good, quick story about a boy and his stepfather; one loves spiders and the other fears them.

Step into mythology with Doris Orgel's Ariadne, Awake! with illustrations by Barry Moser (Viking, 1994, ISBN 0-670-85158-2). Most renditions of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur focus on the hero, but this book focuses on the heroine: Ariadne. It is she who falls in love with Theseus and gives him the thread that, when followed, will lead him out of the labyrinth.

After the kids have researched spiders and webs, start a contest for the best spider web photos and creations. Look at Eric Carle's Very Busy Spider (Putnam, 1989, ISBN 0399-21592-0001). How was the web created and what kind of spider spins a web like that? Look at Joanna Cole's simple, but informative Spider's Lunch (Grosset & Dunlap, 1995, ISBN 0-448-40223-8). Which kind of spider creates the most elaborate web? How does it work? What does it catch? What kind of spiders live in your area? What do their webs look like?