Book Review: Charlotte's Web

Somehow I was asked, or volunteered by my wife, to read to my daughter's second grade class. I thought it would be fun so I said sure.

Her teacher picked E.B. White’s Charlotte's Web for me to read. I have to say, I was great fun! It's an easy book to read and the kids really enjoyed the voices that I did, especially Templeton's (who ended up being the voice I'd used for Professor Snape while reading Harry Potter to my daughters).

The book is about a runt pig that narrowly escapes being culled by an 8-year old girl named Fern, who names him Wilbur and stays close to him as he grows and is sold to her Uncle Zuckerman.

Wilbur soon learns that the fate of all pigs is to be killed in the fall and served up as ham and bacon for the family in the winter. Wilbur doesn’t want to die and finds a spider named Charlotte who becomes his friend and vows to do all she can to save his life.

This is a heartwarming tale about friendship, loyalty and about giving of yourself for others. I’m usually a pushover and I actually found it hard in a couple of places not to get choked up as I read to these 7 and 8 year-olds—somehow I just didn’t think they would think it was cool to see a big grown man like me weep.

The animated movie that was made a few years back followed very closely this book. Which was good and bad -- bad because many of the children had seen the movie and so anticipated things that were coming, but I think also good because it might be nice for the children to see it portrayed so closely after reading or listening to the book themselves.

By the way, if anyone wants to be a hero, take some time out of your day to read to kids. They will love every minute of it and you’ll feel like the greatest person in the world. If you have kids, it will mean so much to them to have you in their classroom like that. I always feel 10-feet tall when I leave. Now I need to figure out what I’m going to read next to the kids.