"She never moved again."
I choked up a bit when I read that line. I had read Charlotte's Web when I was in college...I think. If so, it would have been as part of "Kiddie Lit" class.
I read this annotated version - The Annotated Charlotte's Web - again now to help me become a better writer. It is not included in the series books that currently comprise most of this blog. After all, it's not part of a series.
Getting back to the quotation above, the annotation associated with it says this.
"In Box 2, in the folder dealing with the proposed film version, [author, E. B.] White wrote:
When Charlotte dies, the story teller should be heard saying those words that begin, "She never moved again." I cannot tell you why or how those words have the power to move people, but is [sic] has been clearly established they do. Librarians, schoolteachers, mothers, fathers and children all seem to break apart when they hear those words. I had no idea what I was up to when I was writing them, but I wouldn't want to see them omitted from the script. You would be passing up the single most telling paragraph of the book.
In fact, the words 'She never moved again' were not included in the film."
It's good to know I'm not alone.
If you haven't read Charlotte's Web recently (or even if you have), you should find a young one to read it to.
Just be prepared for that line.
