This month's Kitchen Table pick is Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, read aloud a few chapters a night with one question at the end of each stop. Page count pending. The read-aloud that teaches friendship and loss gently enough for bedtime.
April 2026 pick. Last updated 19 August 2026.
Why this one
It is the rare read-aloud that is calm on the surface and enormous underneath. A four-year-old hears a story about a pig and a spider. A seven-year-old hears a story about a friend who plans her own goodbye. You get to sit with both at once, which is most of the job.
A four-year-old hears a story about a pig. A seven-year-old hears a story about a friend who plans her own goodbye.
Tonight's question
Why do you think Charlotte helped Wilbur when she did not have to?
Open the kid's page in big type
The pace planner
Work out when you finish
Set your start date and your honest nightly minutes. It saves in this browser only.
- Per night
- 12 pages
- Per week
- 84 pages
- You finish
- Saturday, October 1025 nights, about 4 weeks
We have not verified a page count for this edition, so the planner starts from your own copy. Change the number to match the book in your hand.
How long will it take at twenty minutes a night?
Page count pending for the edition we link, so we are not guessing the number of nights. at a modest pace, and the sheet's first question never depends on the ending. The twenty minutes a night system.
The discussion sheet
Dad's Book Club
Discussion sheet
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
The Kitchen Table. April 2026.
If you only ask one
Why do you think Charlotte helped Wilbur when she did not have to?
- Night one, chapters 1 to 3. Fern saves Wilbur before she knows anything about him. Was that brave, or was it just what anyone should do?
- Night two, chapters 4 to 6. Wilbur is lonely in a barn full of animals. How can you be lonely in a crowded place?
- Night three, chapters 7 to 9. Wilbur learns what the smokehouse means. How did it feel to hear him find that out?
- Night four, chapters 10 to 12. The word in the web changes how the grown-ups treat Wilbur. Why do people believe a word more than they believe their own eyes?
- Night five, chapters 13 to 15. Charlotte works all night and says nothing about it. Who in our house does jobs nobody sees?
- Night six, chapters 16 to 18. At the fair Wilbur is scared and proud at the same time. When have you felt both of those at once?
- Night seven, chapters 19 to 20. Charlotte says she is going to stay behind. What would you have said to her?
- Night eight, chapters 21 to 22. Wilbur carries the egg sac home in his mouth. What is one way we can carry someone we miss?
- After the last page. If you could give Charlotte one word to write about you, what would it be?
dadsbookclub.com · April 2026
If you liked this
The Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown · The Shelf
The same month on the shelf, sized for you. A sports story that lands as a book about work, fathers, and being carried by a team.
What to read after it
The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
For the kid who wanted more White and a hero who cannot speak yet.
Stuart Little by E. B. White
For the shorter nights: episodic, funny, easy to stop anywhere.
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