Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All About

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http://blogs.babble.com/strollerder...classic-novels-are-all-about/#brave-new-world

“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:

 

[thatollie]

Re: Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All Abo

Well, she WAS right about Catcher in the Rye.

 

[HareBrain]

Re: Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All Abo

If only Fifty Shades of Grey were about a zebra that wears pants.

 

[iansales]

Re: Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All Abo

Who would be cruel enough to show a six-year-old an Ayn Rand novel?

 

[Toby Frost]

Re: Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All Abo

I hope that child wasn't given the Ayn Rand novel for free. Gifts are for weaklings!

A terrific article. I'd certainly read the revised version of The Fellowship of the Ring, which sounds really unusual. Animal Farm might be fun, too. I also love the fact that Jack Kerouac is French, apparently because he has a stripey T-shirt.

 

[FeedMeTV]

Re: Judging a Book by Its Cover: A 6-year-old Guesses What Classic Novels Are All Abo

I felt quite sorry for the sad tree of Wuthering Heights. And I would be intrigued by a book that featured a purple blob living in a house, even if it was supposed to be boring. Great article.