BookmarkedIsmaila Alfa relates to classic tale "Charlotte's Web"

As host of two CBC Manitoba radio programs (The Weekend Morning Show and SCENE on Air), Ismaila Alfa probably reads more scripts than books most days.

He's also a busy father and musician (Magnum KI releases a new album this summer and Alfa plays June 22 at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival).

SCENE asked Alfa to tell us about a book that left a lasting impression on him:

The first book my mom ever read to me and my sister was Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. She'd read us a chapter every night before we went to bed. It was the first story I really looked forward to hearing, each and every night.

I thought the spider and the pig had a really amazing relationship.

It helped me as a kid because I was very different from most of the kids I went to school with, and I looked different from my parents.

My father is a black man from Ilorin, Nigeria and my mother is a white, British/French woman from Pipestone, Manitoba.

It was nice to hear this story about this spider and this pig, from different species, who could actually live and work symbiotically together to get certain things done.

Charlotte's Web is a book that all kids should know. I look forward to reading it to my own children in the same way I used to look forward to sitting in my mom and dad's bed while my mom read it to us and then we'd go back to our own beds, still thinking about Charlotte and Wilbur.

Hear Ismaila Alfa on CBC Radio -  Saturdays and Sundays from 6 - 9 a.m. and Saturdays from 5 - 6 p.m. on CBC Radio One 990 AM/89.3 FM/97.9 FM in Brandon. He is also hosting a nation-wide CBC holiday special show on Good Friday, March 29, from 6:00 - 9:00 a.m.

Related:
Red Moon Road on SCENE on Air.