{"id":11933,"date":"2012-07-14T22:32:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T02:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=11933"},"modified":"2012-07-14T23:10:26","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T03:10:26","slug":"top-100-childrens-novelists-2-e-b-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=11933","title":{"rendered":"Top 100 Children’s Novelists #2 – E. B. White"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a># 2 Children’s Novelist – E. B. White, 365 points.<\/p>\n

Nobody’s surprised about this one. The author for the second highest number of points in Betsy Bird’s poll of the Top 100 Chapter Books of All Time<\/a> is E. B. White.<\/p>\n

What might be surprising is that while J. K. Rowling, the #1 author, got there with votes on all seven of her books, E. B. White pulled off second place with votes on only two of his books.<\/p>\n

Charlotte’s Web<\/a><\/em> was Chapter Book #1, with 349 points.
\nAnd The Trumpet of the Swan<\/a><\/em> had two people vote for it with a 2nd place and a 4th place ranking, for a total of 16 points.
\nI was surprised that Stuart Little<\/em> got no points at all.<\/p>\n

Now, I personally didn’t vote for Charlotte’s Web<\/em>, but I might have if I’d thought for a moment it wouldn’t win. I have to admit the book is practically perfect. I have wonderful memories of Charlotte’s Web<\/em>, since it was my 3rd grade teacher, Miss Kita, who introduced the book to me when she read it to our class after lunch. I remember being completely enthralled.<\/p>\n

I was never enamored with the other two books, though my husband ended up making me fond of them. That Stuart Little was a mouse, I always found completely creepy. A small human would have been interesting. But a mouse? The open ending didn’t help for me, either.<\/p>\n

Then there was The Trumpet of the Swan<\/em>. I didn’t encounter that one until I was an adult. It’s a good story, but, come on, a trumpet? Really? I know enough about brass instruments to know that you really do need lips to play one. Playing a trumpet with a beak? I’m sorry, but my imagination doesn’t stretch that far.<\/p>\n

Even though you’d think that would bother him, my ex-husband, a tuba player, had loved all three books since he was a boy. He read all three to our sons, and I get warm feelings just remembering that. He and our older son were working together on a sequel to Stuart Little<\/em> called Margalo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Then there was the Hanna Barbara film of Charlotte’s Web<\/em>. My son watched that over and over and over, as only a preschooler can. And yet — I did not hate it, even after hearing it uncountably many times. Most of the dialogue was straight from the book, and the fact is, that’s good dialogue.<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, Charlotte’s Web<\/em>, though completely brilliant, is unconventional, like the other books. Perhaps that’s what blocked it from a Newbery Medal in the end. It starts out as a realistic book and then switches into fantasy with talking animals, though never going all the way there, staying firmly grounded in reality.<\/p>\n

I recently read Michael Sims’ brilliant book, The Story of Charlotte’s Web<\/a><\/em>. It turns out that E. B. White studied spiders for a full year before writing the book. His impeccable research is reflected in the book. These animals — and that immortal spider — are real and grounded in reality.<\/p>\n

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