For the little ones

Short stories to read aloud, one line at a time.

Each story tells one idea from a book, in words a six-year-old knows. Some lines ask your child to say them with you, and most stories end with something to try together. After each one there’s a note for you, folded away: where the idea comes from, and what to know if your child asks.

• Upanishads by Anonymous

  The Sky Stays · Da, Da, Da · The Candy or the Kite

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu

  When I’m Mad, I Wait · No Pulling · First I Look

• The Doctrine of the Mean by Zisi

  One More Try · Not Too Big, Not Too Small · If I Don’t Like It · What Can I Change?

• The Analects by Confucius

  The Little Path · I Don’t Know Yet · Not My Tower

• Ecclesiastes by Qoheleth

  Taste It Now · Everything Gets Its Turn · Up You Come · Plant One More

• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

  All By Itself · Too Full · The Empty Middle · Bendy Wins

• Zhuangzi by Zhuangzi

  The Loose Spot · Through the Tube · Count Them Again

• The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato

  I Don’t Know Yet · Is It Right? · Two Wrongs Make Two

• The Symposium by Plato

  Let’s Find Out · Look Inside First

• The Republic by Plato

  Wait, Think, Then Choose · Turn Around and Look · Who Is It For?

• Laws by Plato

  The Soft String · Little Tools · The Boss Plays Too · The Doctor Who Sits Down

• Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

  Again, and Again · Glad for You

• Mencius by Mencius

  A Seed Grows Slow · The Cup Did Not Do It · The One You Didn’t See

• Dhammapada by Anonymous

  I Don’t Throw It Back · My Shadow Comes Too · Drip, Drop

• Xunzi by Xunzi

  First You Wobble · The Rain Isn’t Mad at You · One Slide, Lots of Kids

• Bhagavad Gita by Vyasa

  I Do My Part · Pull In, Little Turtle · Bring It Back

• On Duties by Cicero

  I Won’t Just Watch · I Said I Would · Tell About the Wobbly Wheel

• Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

  Is It Here Right Now? · Play Near Kind Friends · Grumpy Comes Too · Big and Gentle

• Parallel Lives by Plutarch

  Look and Fix · Enough · Little Things Show

• The Diamond Sutra by Anonymous

  Give It, Then Let Go · Who’s Inside? · It Helped. Now Set It Down. · Watch It Float

• Discourses and Enchiridion by Epictetus

  What I Do Next · Two Handles · Show It

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

  That Is Enough · The Ants Are Up · Come Back Gently · I Won’t Be Like That

• Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

  I Can Pick What I Do · I Don’t Know Yet · Need It or Want It?

• The Enneads by Plotinus

  There You Are · Face the Middle

• Confessions by Augustine

  What We Run To · Would I Do It Alone? · Just One More Minute

• The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Patañjali

  Let It Settle · Yay for You · The Seesaw

• The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

  Yours To Keep · Up And Down · Who Stays

• The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva

  It Gets Easier · Can I Fix It? · The Hand Helps the Foot

• Guide for the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides

  More, More, More · Flash! · Copy the Kind Things

• The Essential Rumi by Rumi

  Knock, Knock! · Hundreds of Ways · Say It Your Way

• Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas

  Grow Your Brave · Say Their Side First · I Want Good for You

• The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis

  Calm in Me First · Do It, Not Just Say It · Meet It at the Door

• The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione

  Look Around First · Watch Me, Watch Me · Honey on the Spoon · Is It Funny for Them Too?

• Essays by Michel de Montaigne

  Plant a Little Seed · Just Different · Maybe I’m Wrong

• Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes

  Still Here · Does It Join Up? · Still the Same Water · I’m Not Sure Yet

• The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

  Not Yet · Big Eyes · If I Were You

• Pensées by Blaise Pascal

  Just Sit a Little · A Funny Hat · I Can Think

• Ethics by Baruch Spinoza

  What Is It, Really? · The Rain Falls on Everyone

• Maxims by François de La Rochefoucauld

  Smaller Than It Feels · My Own Shoes · Ears First

• Political Treatise by Baruch Spinoza

  One Cuts, One Chooses · Find Out Why · Push Together · Scared Quiet Is Not Peace

• Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

  Biggest at the Top

• Letters to His Son by Lord Chesterfield

  I Noticed. I Got Your Favorite. · A Minute Is Something · Mad Is Okay. Wait. Then Soft.

• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

  Again and Again · Think Hard, Then Go Play · Big Story? Let’s Go See

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

  What’s It Like to Be You? · Faces Are My Mirror · A Star You Really Earned

• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

  Your Part, My Part · A Good Swap

• Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

  Think It, Then Look · Can We Go and Look? · A Cookie in Your Head

• Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant

  A Someone, Not a Something · Shiny Even When It Spills · Even When Nobody Sees

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

  Girls Think, Boys Think · Run and Climb · Boss of Me

• On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation by David Ricardo

  Your Part, My Part · I Thought Again

• The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer

  Look Close · Count It Twice · Your Ouch Is In Me Too

• Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Only You Can Make Yours · I Changed My Mind · Be a Friend

• Either/Or by Søren Kierkegaard

  All the Way Here · Pick One and Play

• Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard

  Look Again · Arms on the Bed · The Same Old Game

• Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill

  We Get to Choose · Save Some Seeds · Same Blocks, New Things

• The Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard

  Still Me · One Maybe · Come Upstairs

• Walden by Henry David Thoreau

  Look Close · Less to Carry · Three Chairs · Your Own Drum

• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

  Be Your Own Color · Let Him Talk · Try Her Side

• Das Kapital, Volume I by Karl Marx

  Somebody Made It

• The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche

  Give It a Shape · Why? · Again!

• Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

  Now Draw Yours · Oops, Ha! · Who Made This Rule?