You know what goes well with a great book? Another great book!

One of our favorite ways to take a chapter-book read-aloud to the next level (besides a Read-Aloud Poster, of course) is to pair it with other favorite books. That’s why we include a Library List in the activity guides for our Book Boxes and Read-Aloud Posters. But our Charlotte’s Web Read-Aloud Poster Activity Guide was so chock full of ideas, and there are so many great books to read with Charlotte’s Web, we made a separate Library List full of books you’ll want to read. 

In fact, there are so many great books to pair with this particular read-aloud, we thought it might be helpful to break out our suggestions into three categories:

• before: set the stage and build knowledge
• during: provide extra information and answer questions as you go
• after: did you love Charlotte’s Web? Keep the fun going with these suggestions!

Before

If your family doesn’t have a lot of experience with farm life, it’s a great idea to read a couple of picture books about farms or farm life before you dive into Charlotte’s Web. Think of it as a kind of mental warm-up; it will help your listeners understand and visualize better what is happening in the Zuckerman barn.

If you have very young kids, choose a classic favorite like the Big Red Barn to help them tune in to the read-aloud. Even if they’re not quite ready for Charlotte’s Web, they’ll understand more  and participate in family reading time better if they have a picture book introduction to barns, farm animals, and farm life.

Elementary-age readers will still benefit from an introduction to farm life, but in a more detailed picture-book format. We love Farm by Elisha Cooper.

During

We’re keeping Farm Anatomy close as we’re reading through Charlotte’s Web. It answers lots of questions that come up as we’re reading (“What does a hayloft look like?”), as well as some we didn’t know we had (“What shapes do hay bales come in?”). It even has fun recipes that we may make for a story time snack one day soon. 

We save our spider and pig non-fiction books for separate activities while we’re reading Charlotte’s Web, but not actually during read-aloud time. Books like Spiders by Gail Gibbons or Are you a Spider? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries help us complete sections of the Read-Aloud Poster like Spider Anatomy or Spider Facts. 

We find that we like to look up topics in Farm Anatomy at the end of our read-aloud time for the day. We might even use a different time in the day for reading about spiders and completing our anatomy diagram. We don’t like to switch back and forth between books during our read-aloud time; once we’re in a groove, we like to stay there!

After

So you’re done with Charlotte’s Web…now what? Choose a new chapter book from our list….maybe Farmer Boy if you’d like to read more about farm life, or Trumpet of the Swan if another book by E.B. White interests you. 

Maybe you want to read about how E.B. White wrote Charlotte’s Web… pick up Some Writer by Melissa Sweet and read all about the inspiration for your new favorite book!

Did you think Wilbur’s barnyard friends were funny? We think you’ll laugh out loud at Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

Whatever books you choose, we hope our Library List gives you plenty of inspiration to keep reading! Do you have a favorite book from our Library List or another suggestion to share? Let us know in the comments below!