I finished reading Charlotte's Web to my kids today. What a story! I think that maybe because it has taken us soooooooo long to read together (we started it months ago and then took it back up this summer) I have become incredibly attached to the characters, in particular Charlotte. While my kids, and in fact everyone in the story is fond of Wilbur, my heart goes out to Charlotte. Maybe its the writer in me, or the bit of feminist in me, or even the mother in me, I don't know. Yesterday when we read the second last chapter, I could hardly contain myself... in fact I was crying and Julia laughed at me for doing so! You see, I'm going to spoil it for those of you who haven't read it, and yet it's not spoiled if you decide to read it again as an adult and see what it means to you, but in yesterday's chapter Charlotte died. In the words of the books, "No one was with her when she died". I was overwhelmed with the fact that someone who gave all she had to give to help save someone else's life would, in the end, lose her own. But not only that, someone who was really the greatest friend you could imagine, had nobody, not even a rat with her when she died. Gosh. I was struck too with Charlotte's mission and vision of life and how she so gracefully lived what she believed. "After all," she explains to Wilbur, "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". So true.
This book was fun for us to read. Julia has taken her pig "Wilbur" with us everywhere, and Tyler is obsessed with the grotesque facts of spiders and captured by Spiderman! To be honest it wasn't quite as an exciting read as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was for us. Now comes the fun part where we search for a new book for our collection. Any suggestions? What have you enjoyed reading with your kids?
3 comments:
I'm so impressed that you've read so much with your kids, Renee! We just follow the boys' leads and interests when it comes to choosing read-alouds. We've really enjoyed some Beverly Cleary books like "Ramona Quimby" or "Mouse on the Motorcycle". Even my boys have loved Junie B. Jones; she is absolutely hilarious. Then there's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" which is a little eccentric. If we had girls, maybe we would have read "Little House on the Prairie" by now. Best of luck finding some new reading!
I remember my mom reading to us a book called "Half Magic" by Edward Eager. I know it's available on Amazon. It's about four children who find magic coins and travel through time. It's a lot of fun. What about James and the Giant Peach or Stuart Little? I remember reading those as a child too.
We've read a couple Ramona's and Little House books. I've never heard of "Half Magic" but it interests me! I just bought it used on Amazon for 78cents - and I'm excited to explore it!
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