—E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web I have read Charlotte’s Web once a year, on my birthday, since I was eight. I never get tired of it. If I ever have a son, I’m going to name him Wilbur. Okay, maybe not his first name, but his second for sure. At first I loved the pictures almost as much as I loved the story, but mostly I love the way it’s written. E.B. White never uses more or bigger words than he has to. He writes about really important things like birth and death, the love between true friends, the value of imagination, but he’s got a sense of humor about it all. For a while I went around saying “Salutations!” instead of “Hello,” until my mother threatened to take the book away. I learned the names for the seven sections of a spider’s leg from Charlotte’s Web. I also learned the meaning of the words languishing and spinnerets and gullible. Charlotte saves Wilbur’s life with words: Some Pig, Radiant, Terrific and finally Humble. As Ruth and Jane and Jonah and I drove back from the lake, I wondered if there were any words that could save Ruth from the wrath of her parents.
