- The Good: A beloved classic about a pig and a spider
- The Bad: Almost too short
- The Literary: Some Pig. Humble. Radiant.
When the farm pig gives birth to piglets, Fern pleads with her father to save the runt of the litter. Her father relents, so Fern names the piglet Wilbur, bottle feeds him, and pushes him around in a stroller until he’s big enough to live on her uncle’s farm. There, little Wilbur simply wants friendship among the barnyard animals and finds it unexpectedly in a tiny spider named Charlotte.
I haven’t read this since I was a kid, but boy howdy, it still hits. It’s a just about perfect little story, beloved for a reason. This tender tale is full of friendship, love, life, and death, and I won’t pretend that I didn’t have a good cathartic cry at the end.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes this story so special. As a kid, I think I focused on the isolation: Wilbur is rejected as the runt of the litter and then again when the animals on the new farm dismiss him. He’s a sweet, earnest soul and has a lot of emotions he’s not sure what do with, living in a harsh and unfair world.
As an adult, I see that family often isn’t biological, instead it’s actively chosen through empathy, sacrifice, and loyalty. First, Fern adopts him. Later, Charlotte becomes Wilbur’s friend and maternal figure. She protects him, lifts him up, and through her hard work shows the world how special he is. The other barnyard animals also become stand-ins for Wilbur’s family — even Templeton the rat.
I also love how the changing seasons reflect not only the passage of time, but Wilbur’s internal emotional journey, Taking place over one year, Wilbur experiences the vulnerability of a rainy spring, the belonging of the golden days of summer, the high of harvest, and the tragedy, solitude, and grief of winter. The return of sprint brings transformation, but at a cost.
Highly recommend for all!