Everything is illuminated

THE summer my son Noah was 5, he went on a "Charlotte's Web" kick. Or no, not kick: That doesn't quite capture the binge-like insistence of it, the way E.B. White's 1952 children's classic became the centerpiece of his life. For months, we read it to him every night, chapter by chapter, beginning again each time we reached the end. By the time September arrived and Noah's attention had led on other entertainments, we had read "Charlotte's Web" perhaps 10 times, and I (who had never loved the book as a child) had come to appreciate just what a remarkable achievement it was.

As any parent knows, the trick of reading to kids is to keep your boredom at bay. Of the thousands of children's titles published each year, few remain compelling after the first or second go-round. Yet "Charlotte's Web" is that rare exception, a book that not only held me but drew me in more deeply with each visit to Homer Zuckerman's barn. It is a story with everything -- life, death, love, loss and an almost aching sense of yearning, tempered by a belief in cosmic justice. So unsentimental is White's vision, so heartbreaking his wisdom, that the publisher, Harper & Brothers, urged him to soften the ending, which they felt would disturb the book's young readers. He didn't, of course, and half a century later "Charlotte's Web" has sold 45 million copies, which, if nothing else, offers a convincing refutation of the notion that we should protect our children from the complexities of the world.

White died in 1985 at age 86, so it's impossible to know what he would have thought about the big-budget live action film of "Charlotte's Web" that comes out this week. (He was approached about the screen rights in the early 1950s, and signed off on an animated version that appeared in 1973.) He might, however, have taken issue with the 18-plus tie-ins and adaptations that have been released in conjunction with the current movie, a veritable storm of publishing that includes deluxe editions, activity books, sticker sets, picture books and "I Can Read" early readers.

Such a deluge does precisely what White resisted half a century ago -- diluting his story's toughness and clarity in favor of something safe and bland. Even the new hardcover of "Charlotte's Web" (Harper Entertainment: 184 pp., $16.99) -- "The Original Novel by E.B. White," it trumpets -- replaces Garth Williams' iconic cover illustration with a nearly identical photo of the film's star, Dakota Fanning, clutching a newborn pig. It's almost enough to make the most devoted reader cynical, were it not for the enduring power of the book.