Babe

Author:  Dick King-Smith
Lexile measure: 1040
Language:  No swear words, no potty language.  The words "dumb" and "stupid" are used to describe some animals, but its made plentifully clear that these words should not have been used.
Violence:  The fact that pigs are turned into food is central to the plot.  This might be scary to some sensitive kids.  The sheep get "worried" by dogs  used by a sheep rustler and the dogs actually kill a sheep that Babe is particularly close to.   There is blood involved in that particular scene.
Big Kid Mature Topics:  Some of the animals have prejudicial ideas about other animals.  I'm not sure many kids would make the leap to apply this to humans, though.  Its not really that kind of a story.
Plot:  moderately complex

Despite the Lexile measure, this book is a much simpler read (and certainly shorter) than Charlotte's Web.  It may be one of the first real chapter books we read to our daughter.  We don't read it much any more, which  I suspect is because its "too short", which is a shame because it is a fun book to read aloud, especially if you like to do accents!