Children's Literature Titled Charlotte's Web and The Tale of Despereaux

Children's literature serves the primary purpose of enhancing the critical thinking and cognitive skills of young ones, thus, enabling them to easily relate with the environment and the context in which they live. The genre of the children's literature tends to be diverse with the most notable themes being fantasy fiction, fairy tales, poetry and the general children stories. Tutors and teachers, in general, have the mandate of choosing the desirable books that children ought to read owing to the level of study of the learners and the intended outcome of the learning process that has been outlined by the tutors. Notably, the primary motivation of the authors of children's literature is to teach and entertain them and create a perception of the real world in the mind of the children. The topics in which such authors rights are generally perceived as being attractive to the entire public and could range from stories of magic, animals such as rabbits, fictional magic world, and success stories. This paper analyzes the books titled Charlotte's Web by E.B White and The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo with particular emphasis on the cultural and historical context in which they were produced.

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The book by E. B White titled Charlotte's Web has two main characters, that is, Wilbur the pig and Charlotte the Spider. The duo is best friends living on a farm and bosom friends too. Charlotte plots the rescue of his friend Wilbur having learned that the owners of Wilbur have the primary intention of turning him into bacon. The historical context of the story is premised on the need for children to have a good choice of their friends, friends who could bail them out in their time of need. Culturally, the American and the general, the western world countries are often relatively small, and the circle of friends that one tends to maintain is also relatively smaller. Therefore, teaching the children the primary means through which they may forge quality friendships is ideal for their social developments. The key and central theme that the author of the book promotes is loyalty and dependability of friends, especially, when one is in need. Such lesson is passed to the young ones, perhaps in grade two and three, with the sole intention of ensuring that they lead lives that are desirable and considerate to those whom they refer to as their loved ones. The article by Thomas establishes that "from her tiny head and abdomen to her spinnerets and eight hairy legs; each leg has seven distinct parts, all with scientific names. Charlotte delights in her attractive legs and their spinning capacity, just as she later takes pride in her magnum opus, her egg sac (Thomas 2014)." The sole purpose of this phrase is to stimulate the learning of children, enabling them to understand the body parts of the spider and seek the scientific names that the author asserts in the article. Furthermore, the depiction of the adoption of Charlotte's egg sac, when Wilber establishes that Charlotte's life cycle is near complete is an affirmation of reciprocate of good friendship amongst the bosom buddies which call for consideration of one's continuity at the end of one's life.

In the second book, that is, The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamill, the authors bring up the adventures of a mouse. Kate brings out the sense of believing in yourself in as much as you may have the fear that something might be scary. The story of the dark stairs elaborates how she was unable to withstand her father's terrifying sound when laughing. She supports this by narrating the story of a mouse which turned out to be a knight. Kate speaks of choosing whether to take action and be brave because darkness lies within one 'self or fail to admit that there is darkness (Dicamillo 9). Kate talks of the darkness at the bottom of the stairs which scares her most. Children have the fear when in such scenarios just like her younger brother was when Kate and her father scared him with. The combination of the dark stairs and the witch's laughter was enough to kill him. People believe that children do not know anything about darkness and here is a case where her four-year-old brother is scared of the dark stairs. She confirms that children need to know anything that relates to their experience of being human.

Conclusion

In conclusion, children's literature tends to use amusing tales as evident in the choice of characters, majorly animals that many children tend to liken. The works of the authors also tend to be driven by their professional backgrounds. For example, E.B White worked with the New Yorker, where she gained considerable experience in developing literature. "After Cornell White held a succession of jobs in New York City, traveled across the continent in a Model T, and returned to New York for more jobs before catching on with the NewYorker, then finishing its second year of publication (Minear 54)." Importantly, the lesson that the children are likely to draw, based on the fairy tales and the use of the animal characters are the primary motivation of the authors when writing the children's literature.

Works Cited

Dicamillo, Kate. "We Do Not Do Battle Alone."." Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 2 (2004): 8-10.

Minear, Richard H. "EB White Takes His Leave, or Does He?" The Elements of Style", Six Editions (1918-2000)." The Massachusetts Review 45.1 (2004): 51-71.

Thomas, Trudelle H. "The arc of the rope swing: humor, poetry, and spirituality in Charlotte's Web by EB White." International Journal of Children's Spirituality 21.3-4 (2016): 201-215.