Now We Are Six

By A.A. Milne

Illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard

Original copyright 1927

I’m not sure what it was about turning six, but I remember I thought it was the best year ever.  I was a little disappointed when I turned seven because seven just wasn’t as nice a number.  And six was so much better than ten, when I fell asleep crying because I had hit double-digits.

Six is when a child can live in a make-believe world and the real world at the same time.  At six, I know I was old enough to tell the difference between fiction and truth, but I was still young enough to become fully immersed in make-believe.  I knew my dear stuffed dog Freddy was stuffed with cotton fluff, but I could pretend he was real and no one would think it strange. 

A. A. Milne captures this paradox wonderfully in his book of poems for young children.  Christopher Robin and Pooh are featured in several of the poems, but not all.  As Milne states of Pooh in his introduction, “he walked through it one day, looking for his friend Piglet, and sat down on some of the pages by mistake.”  The familiar characters are featured enough to keep the Pooh fan interested. 

The book’s title is taken from the last poem, aptly named, The End.

When I was One,

I had just begun.

When I was Two,

I was nearly new,

When I was Three,

I was hardly Me.

When I was Four,

I was not much more.

When I was Five,

I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I’m as clever as clever.

So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.

That sounds like a great idea to me!