Charlotte's Web Study Guide Adapted by Joseph Robinette From the book by E.B. White ABOUT THE AUTHOR E. B. White (1899-1985) was born in Mount Vernon, New York. For many years, he was a contributing editor to The New Yorker magazine. His non-fiction work The Second Tree from the Corner (1954) earned the superlatives of one critic who termed him "the finest essayist in the United States. However, E. B. White is best known for his children's books. In 1952 he wrote Charlotte's Web, one of the most popular books of all time. The Children's Literature Association dubbed Charlotte's Web "the best American children's book of the past two hundred years." One summer day in 1933, White and his wife Katharine were aboard a yacht, anchored in a cove off the coast of Maine. From the yacht they could see a farm with a beautiful barn. The next day, as they drove their car through the countryside, they passed a "For Sale" sign in front of a house. It turned out to be on the same property as the barn they had spotted the day before. They bought the property, and it was this farm and its inhabitants that inspired White's writing. Farm life presented a problem for White. He loved animals, but most farm animals were slaughtered for food. While trying to figure out a way for a pig to be saved from that fate, he observed a large gray spider near the barn. One idea lead to another and the story of Charlotte's Web unfolded. Other children's books by E. B. White * Trumpet of the Swan * Stuart Little A fun story about the author When E. B. White was a young boy he loved riding his bike and doing tricks on it. He could even ride backwards on the handlebars. Many years later, when he was 73, White wanted to show he could deliver the mail on his bike, faster than the U. S. Postal Service. It was a hard trip because the temperature was 18 degrees and he faced stiff head winds. It took him thirty minutes. The rest of the mail was sent 32 miles away and sorted then sent back again before delivery the next day. At 73 years old, E. B. White defeated the United States Postal Service. THE STORYCharlotte's Web begins when Fern, a young girl who loves animals, rescues the runt of the pig litter from her father's axe. She names the tiny pig Wilbur and cares for him until he is big enough to be raised at the farm of Homer Zuckerman, Fern's uncle. At Zuckerman's farm, Wilbur is confused and scared by the other animals on the farm including a gossipy goose, a gloomy sheep, and a grouchy rat named Templeton. Wilbur is homesick and lonely for Fern until he meets a new friend, a beautiful gray spider Charlotte A. Cavatica, who lives in the eaves above Wilbur's pen. Charlotte quickly teaches Wilbur about true friendship. When the animals find out that Mr. Zuckerman is fattening up Wilbur to be slaughtered, Charlotte springs into action to save her friend. She uses energy and ingenuity to spin mysterious words into her web above Wilbur's pen. The news spreads across the countryside about "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" and Wilbur becomes a celebrity, which was Charlotte's plan all along. Through Charlotte's example, Wilbur learns the true meaning of friendship. When Charlotte is gone Wilbur takes care of her eggs through the winter. In the spring he is the first to hear a tiny gray spider shout "Salutations!" -- the same greeting so joyfully proclaimed by Charlotte on the day their friendship began. Vocabulary/Spelling List Runt-the smallest animal of a litter Specimen-a sample Salutations-greetings, hello Terrific-exciting Slops-waste food used to feed pigs Radiant-to emit rays, glowing Humble-not proud, near to the ground Conspiracy-a treacherous plot Miraculous-as if by a miracle Injustice-a wrong Match the animal to its babies Draw a line from the adult animal name to the baby animal name. 1. Swine A. Foal 2. Cow B. Pig 3. Horse C. Lamb 4. Goose D. Chick 5. Chicken E. Kid 6. Sheep F. Duckling 7. Duck G. Gosling 8. Goat H. Calf From the page...to the stage...to the classroom Charlotte uses her special talents to save her friend, Wilbur. She makes a plan, organizes the animals and spins words in her web. * Activity: Write a story where you use your special talents to help a friend. In the book and the play, Fern persuades her father not to kill Wilbur. * Activity: Write and deliver a persuasive speech to convince Fern's father to spare Wilbur's life. Zuckerman's barn was a perfect place for Wilbur to live. Fern had to go there every day to take care of him. Taking care of a Wilbur was a big responsibility for Fern. What things did Fern do in the play to care for Wilbur? * Activity: If you could have any pet in the world, what would it be? Now create a chart of all the things you would need to do to keep care of it. What would you need to do daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly? When E. B. White wrote the book Charlotte's Web, he studied the behavior of spiders for over a year. Among the things he discovered was how spiders make webs. * Activity: Study a spider web or a picture of a spider web. After this research, draw your own spider web. Then, write a word in the web that would help save Wilbur. In the book and play, a reporter comes to the Zuckerman Farm to see the amazing pig and the words "Some Pig" written in the spider web above his pen. * Activity: Pretend you are that newspaper reporter who first discovers Wilbur under Charlotte's web and write a newspaper article about the amazing pig at the Zuckerman's Farm. Joseph Robinette adapted the play, Charlotte's Web, from the book by E.B. White. * Activity: Adapt your favorite story into a play. What will the characters say to each other? What sort of action will take place? And where? Is there a problem to solve or a crisis to deal with in your story? Conflict and how it gets resolved is the basis of all good stories and plays. Spider and Pig Facts * Spiders have eight legs. Each leg has seven joints. This makes it easy to move around. * The front part of a spider's body is a combination of the head and thorax. The abdomen, in the rear, contains silk spinning organs. * Spiders produce a silk-like thread from six spinnerets located on the abdomen. Inside are 100-1,000 spinning tubes plus extra large tubes called spigots. Many different kinds of silk thread can be spun by a spider for many different uses. * The silk can be used to make egg sacs, to line nests, to weave webs or to tie up "victims." If twisted into a rope, some spiders' thread would be stronger than iron wire. * Mother spiders make a silken sac, in which they lay their eggs. They may lay from one to 3,000 eggs at a time. * Spiders hatch in the spring or fall. The babies leave their cocoon and climb to the highest spot they can find, leaving a long strand of gossamer (silk thread). The slightest breeze will carry them away in the air like a parachute. * Pigs weigh about two and a half pounds at birth, and usually double their weight the first week. Adult pigs are called hogs. Hogs belong to the pig family called Suidae. * Hogs have thick skin and no sweat glands to serve as a cooling system. They wallow in the mud to keep cool. * The hog's snout has a broad, leathery pad that includes the nostrils. The snout is very sensitive. Hogs often use their snouts to dig for vegetable roots, one of their favorite foods. * Hogs have four toes on each foot. Each toe ends in a hoof. * Hogs reach full growth at around 2 years of age and can live from 9 to 15 years. Wilbur's Puzzle All the words listed below appear in the puzzle horizontally, vertically, diagonally and even backwards. Circle their letters only -- do not circle the word. The remaining uncircled letters spell the secret words. G S H E E P T F I C H R E N R A P A I S A E R R R A O I D E L M F O D N D B O E G A A I T M R R R G P N R A B T E S S W T L E B BARN FAIR FARMER GANDER GOOSE LAMB PIG RADIANT RAT SHEEP SPIDER The secret words. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ '__ __ __ __ Great Quotations from the Book "People believe almost anything they see in print." Charlotte "A rotten egg is a regular stinkbomb." Templeton "We must advertise Wilbur's noble qualities, not his tastiness." Charlotte "An hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops." The Goose "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." Wilbur ________________________________________________ SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS AT OREGON CHILDREN’S THEATRE FOR SHARING THEIR WONDERFUL STUDY GUIDE MATERIALS
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