10 Classic Novels as Explained by a 6-Year-Old

"Momma, what's this book about?" That is a question that I hear every time we go to our local bookstore as my very curious six-year-old daughter picks up eye-catching books from various sections from fiction to biographies to psychology. My family spends a fair amount time in bookstores, so this is a query I've become accustomed to hearing and one I try my darndest to answer (but really, how does one explain James Joyce's Ulysses to a six-year-old?).

Recently, I've been curious to see what she thought the books were about. She doesn't yet know - from experience or exposure - what the narrative of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit is about, what happens in the F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby or that George Orwell's Animal Farm is not a book for children.

What happens when this recent kindergarten graduate judges a book by its cover? Here are the results:

(above No Exit: "It's about someone who is in jail and you know there are no exits in a jail.")

Full Disclosure: I bribed my 6-year-old with a Calico Critters Zack and Sandy Beaver set for her participation. Yes, I'm that mom.

- By Sunny Chanel

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