I've just finished rereading this, and I think I appreciate it so much more now as an adult. I mean, I liked it when I was a kid though it never really grabbed me then the way it did a lot of people. But now I find it charming.

I think what I most like about it are the illustrations by Garth Williams. I don't say that as a denigration of the text, but because this book is one of those rare instances where the illustrations and the text are an absolutely perfect match (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake are another example of this). I'd forgotten details of the story, but the pictures of Templeton after his gorging at the fair, of Wilbur getting a buttermilk bath and doing a flip and trying to look Terrific, of Fern walking him in the pram, have stuck with me for decades and I was delighted to see them again (the look on the face of the geese as Templeton takes away their egg! it had me laughing my head off).

It's still not quite five stars from me, mostly because I just don't find Wilbur himself that interesting, but even so it's pretty wonderful.