Meryl Streep is set to venture into the world of children’s literature.
The Academy Award-winning actress will headline a new full-cast audiobook recording of E. B. White’s classic children’s book Charlotte’s Web from Listening Library, Penguin Random House Audio announced Monday.
The upcoming recording will mark the first new audiobook edition of the 1953 Newbery Honor Book since the author’s own narration, recorded nearly 50 years ago. Streep will be joined by an ensemble cast of more than 20 veteran audiobook narrators including January LaVoy as Charlotte, Kirby Heyborne as Wilbur and MacLeod Andrews as Templeton, among others.
The Charlotte’s Web audiobook will feature original mixed-media collage and watercolor cover art by two-time Caldecott Honor?winning artist and White biographer Melissa Sweet, who wrote and narrated an exclusive appreciation for the audio.
Charlotte’s Web, which was originally published in 1952, chronicles the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte.
The new recording from Listening Library will join previous recordings of favorite stories like The Call of the Wild (read by Jeff Daniels); The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (read by Brooke Shields and Paul Rudd); Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (read by F. Murray Abraham and a full cast); and Grimm’s Fairy Tales (read by an award-winning ensemble cast).
The audiobook version of Charlotte’s Web will be available to download on Oct. 29.
