Banned Books Week 2021

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

By: Naulayne Enders, Director of Young Library

 

A Tangled Web

I come from a family of readers where trips to the library occurred every week and piles of books and magazines were available in every room of the house. We read along with books on vinyl records, talked about books at dinner, and got the library to extend the due dates on our books when we went on vacation.  Books allowed me to explore other cultures, pretend I had my own room, and explore different careers such as becoming a nurse (Clara Barton) and a nuclear physicist (Marie Curie).  It was inevitable that I also read banned books.

 

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White was banned from classrooms in 2006 by a parents group in Kansas.  Their objection to this book was that talking animals were a work of the devil.  It was sacrilegious to show animals having human abilities.  It is not only one of my favorite banned books, but also one of my favorite books of all time. 

 

This book is about the friendship between a young pig, Wilbur, and a spider, Charlotte. When Wilbur becomes aware that he will be killed in the fall, he is very upset.  Charlotte comes up with a plan to weave words in her web that describe Wilbur.  “Some Pig”, “Radiant”, and “Humble” become part of common conversation until the idea of killing Wilbur disappears, which just goes to show the power of words! Their incredible friendship evolved from a world of opposites.

• Wilbur was naive while  Charlotte was wise.
• Wilbur was large while Charlotte was small.
• Wilbur was often frightened while Charlotte was brave.
• Wilbur was fed by a farmer while Charlotte had to “hunt” her own food.

Despite those opposites, they developed a friendship that helped them to understand more about each other and more about themselves.  They could see their world from other perspectives. 

 

This is a juvenile book and like many books for this age group, has wisdom to impart to people of all ages. 

• We live in a world of quiet miracles like words that appear in spider webs.  Take time to find them.
• All of us have skills that make us special, such as Wilbur’s humility and Charlotte’s intelligence.  When we work together with these different skills, we can change the world, or at least our piece of it.
• Listen.  You will hear things that no one else can.

Ultimately, the greatest takeaway in this book is that differences are assets, not reasons for division.  They are what creates a stronger ‘web’ and tangled does not look so bad.