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    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
    Follow Sunny at Babble

    For 12 more classic novels as explained by a 6-year-old, visit Babble!

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    1. To Kill a Mockingbird
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    3. The Catcher in the Rye
    4. Wuthering Heights
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    6. A Clockwork Orange
    7. Catch-22
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    1. To Kill a Mockingbird
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    7. Catch-22
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    9. The Color Purple
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    1. Photo by: Stock Photo
      To Kill a Mockingbird
      "It's about a guy that tried to kill a mockingbird but he couldn't because the bird was magical. And the bird lives in different trees because he's trying to hide from him but the man keeps hitting leaves that look like the mockingbird, but he never shoots the mockingbird. And guy is really bad but the bird is really good. "
      Photo by: Stock Photo
      To Kill a Mockingbird
      "It's about a guy that tried to kill a mockingbird but he couldn't because the bird was magical. And the bird lives in different trees because he's trying to hide from him but the man keeps hitting leaves that look like the mockingbird, but he never shoots the mockingbird. And guy is really bad but the bird is really good. "

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