“You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, 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.”
—Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Scarlett and I read Charlotte’s Web together over the course of a few days. I wasn’t sure she’d be into it, but she loved the story of Wilbur, the runty baby pig who was rescued and bottle-fed by a little farm girl, and how he then met a spider who became his best friend and saved his life.

Scarlett was also very interested towards the end of the book, when I burst into tears while reading about Charlotte’s death. She curled up in my lap when it was over, and I could see her trying to squeeze out a few tears, too. But then she said, “I want to go look at the Christmas presents.” Read More>