50 free Charlotte's Web trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Charlotte's Web trivia quiz covers E. B. White's 1952 classic from the runt of the litter to the three spiderlings who stay behind. The easy questions are ones anyone who read it as a child could answer: the pig, the spider, the girl who saved him, the rat under the trough, the words woven into the web, and the fair where the story ends. The harder end is for teachers, parents and book collectors: Charlotte's full name and what it reveals about her species, the novelist White asked to identify his spider, the illustrator who first drew Charlotte with a woman's face, how many spiderlings hatch, the medal the book lost in 1953, White's own explanation that a book is a sneeze, the Sherman Brothers songs and Debbie Reynolds's voice in the 1973 cartoon, Julia Roberts and the Australian locations of the 2006 film, the 2003 sequel with a black lamb, and the 2025 miniseries. Stuart Little, The Elements of Style and the Newbery Medal get questions too. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the novel, its author and its adaptations before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our children's books, classic novels and Roald Dahl quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote Charlotte's Web?
E. B. White
He also wrote The Trumpet of the Swan.
Q 02In what year was Charlotte's Web published?
1952
Harper & Brothers released it on 15 October.
Q 03What kind of animal is Wilbur?
A pig
He was the runt of his litter.
Q 04What is the first phrase Charlotte weaves into her web?
Some Pig
Three more words follow as the summer wears on.
Q 05Which word does Charlotte weave on the goose's suggestion?
Terrific
It begins the cycle of fame anew after the first phrase is destroyed.
Q 06Where does Templeton find the word Radiant?
A laundry detergent ad
The gluttonous rat lives under Wilbur's trough.
Q 07Which word does Charlotte weave at the county fair?
Humble
Templeton brings it to her at Wilbur's fair stall.
Q 08What is the surname of the farm family whose daughter saves the runt piglet?
Arable
Fern, the daughter, is the only human in the story who can understand animal conversation.
Q 09How many piglets were in Wilbur's litter?
Eleven
Wilbur was the runt, born the night before Fern's plea.
Q 10To whom is Wilbur sold when he grows too big for Fern to keep?
Homer Zuckerman
He is her aunt's husband, so she can still visit.
Q 11Which animal first tells Wilbur that he is being raised for slaughter?
The head ram
The scornful ram's offhand remark leaves Wilbur distraught.
Q 12Who is the first to read the message in Charlotte's web?
Lurvy
He is the hired man at Zuckerman's farm.
Q 13Who is Fern's elder brother?
Avery
Like Templeton he serves as comic relief.
Q 14Who is Fern's childhood sweetheart, with whom she spends the fair?
Q 21What was White's original surname for the spider, after the Grey Cross spider's genus?
Epeira
He dropped it on learning the genus had been renamed Aranea.
Q 22Which novelist did White ask to identify the spider on his farm?
Vladimir Nabokov
The lepidopterist knew nothing about spiders and pointed him to Willis Gertsch at the American Museum of Natural History.
Q 23In which state was the author's farm, where he encountered the spider in 1950?
Maine
The barn that inspired the book has been kept off limits to the public at his wish; he asked a novelist friend to identify the spider.
Henry Fussy
Her growing interest in him marks her maturing away from the barn.
Q 15What is the name of the large pig who rivals Wilbur at the fair?
Uncle
Charlotte disdains the big rival for his coarse manners.
Q 16What does Wilbur win at the fair?
A special prize from the judges
Charlotte realises the honour means Zuckerman will never slaughter him.
Q 17What is Charlotte's final request to Wilbur and Templeton?
To take her egg sac home
She dies alone at the fairgrounds.
Q 18How many children hatch from Charlotte's egg sac?
514
All but three balloon away on silken threads.
Q 19What are the names of the three spiderlings who stay in the barn?
Joy, Aranea and Nellie
Wilbur always holds Charlotte in more esteem than any of them.
Q 20What full name does the spider give, revealing her species?
Charlotte A. Cavatica
It reveals her as a barn spider, Araneus cavaticus.
Q 24How did illustrator Garth Williams first draw Charlotte?
With a woman's face
White suggested he simply draw a realistic spider instead.
Q 25Who was Garth Williams's model for Fern?
His toddler daughter Fiona
She had been a toddler when the family escaped the Blitz.
Q 26Which other famous series did Garth Williams illustrate?
Little House on the Prairie
He also drew a dozen Little Golden Books.
Q 27What is the famous first line of Charlotte's Web?
Where's Papa going with that ax?
Nancy Larrick praised its startling note of realism.
Q 28How did White explain, or refuse to explain, why he wrote it?
A book is a sneeze
He had failed to save a real sick pig, an experience he described in a 1948 essay.
Q 29Which 1948 White essay recounts his failure to save a sick pig?
Death of a Pig
The novel has been read as his attempt to save his pig in retrospect.
Q 30Which book beat Charlotte's Web to the 1953 Newbery Medal?
Secret of the Andes
Charlotte's Web was named a Newbery Honor book instead.