Charlotte's Web — Chapter 22

About This Passage

Chosen because this is Wilbur's farewell speech to Charlotte's three daughters — the solemn pledge that closes a lifetime of friendship and passes it forward. It holds six vocabulary words (hallowed, devoted, brilliant, loyal, treasure, pledge) and teaches fourth through sixth graders how a speech of thanksgiving and promise is built.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 22 in your own words. Describe Wilbur coming home with the medal and the egg sac, the winter when he watched over the sac, the spring arrival of hundreds of baby spiders, the sad balloon departure, the three daughters who stay — Joy, Aranea, and Nellie — Wilbur's pledge, and the book's final line about Charlotte as a true friend and a good writer.

Discussion Questions

1. All winter Wilbur scoops out a special place for the egg sac next to the board fence, and on very cold nights he lies so his breath will warm the sac. White tells us that for Wilbur nothing in life was so important as this small round object. What does this tell us about how Wilbur has changed by the end of the book? How is this different from the Wilbur we met at the Zuckerman barn in Chapter 3?
2. When Charlotte's babies start climbing to the top of the fence and ballooning away on the warm updraft, one little spider explains: We are aeronauts and we are going out into the world to make webs for ourselves. Why does White have the babies leave rather than stay? What is the author showing us about how growing up works — for spiders, and maybe for children too?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide