Author: E. B. White
Reading Level: Middle-grade
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Content Rating: G
My daughter's 3rd-grade class started reading this, and I
realized I've never actually read it! I've seen the cartoon movie (was
it made in the 1980s? That's when I watched it!), so I knew the story.
But I'd never read the book! So I set about to remedy that.
That
cartoon movie follows the book so well that I almost feel as though I
HAD read the book. And while reading the book, I couldn't help but hear
the movie's songs in my head:
I open up and talk! Talk talk talk talk, I can talk!
The fair is a veritable smorgasbord...
I
guess what struck me most with reading this book as an adult was how it
deals with the topic of death (quite a bit) for a young audience in a
way they can relate to. Death is a hard and heavy subject for most
people, but especially for children. I think it's handled well here.
There
are other, happier themes in the book too, though. Friendship, of
course, and love. I think those themes help balance the heavier topics.
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