Terrific, Radiant and Humble

“Papa, where are you going with that axe?”

Thus (chillingly!) begins Charlotte’s Web, which I finished reading to the girls a few days ago. It was awesome — both the book itself, and the experience of reading it aloud to the girls.

I hadn’t read it since I was a kid, and it was a pleasure to rediscover as an adult (and as a writer, to boot). What a fantastic book! And how beautifully White uses the changing of the seasons, the birth of new animals, and the changing of Fern’s interests (i.e. away from farm animals and toward that dashing rogue, Henry Fussy) to underline the themes of the cycles of life, growing up, aging and dying.

Forgive me, I may just break into “Sunrise, Sunset” here; it’s been playing through my mind repeatedly as my girls have passed the five year mark. Which is maybe why I found the book itself and the act of reading it (our first successful lengthy chapter book experience!) particularly poignant.

I honestly wasn’t sure how it was going to go over. Although we’ve read a few short chapter books to the girls before — Magic Treehouse books, specifically, at YOUR suggestion! —  it’s never been exactly smooth sailing. Sometimes they’re totally into it, other times they don’t have the attention span for it and just want a plain ole picture book. And Charlotte’s Web is far longer and subtler than anything we’d attempted before. I had to talk it up ahead of time  in a major way to get the girls to give it a shot: There’s a little girl! Talking farm animals! An erudite spider! A gluttonous rat! What more could you want in a book?!

Then, I worried that the threat of Wilbur being turned into pork products (I mean, jeez, that opening line of the book!) would either upset the girls too much, or, worse, turn them into vegetarians. I have a hard enough time getting them to eat. I don’t need another challenge on that front.

Read the rest of this post over at Baby Squared.