The short, short version of literature

I had a moment of clarity this afternoon in regards to being helpful to my kid. She's starting a new book in her English class, and while we had just began chatting about it, she mentioned that she was having a hard time understanding it. I asked a couple more questions about it, and she complained again about not getting it. I looked at her and said, "Do we need to buy the book?" She said yes, and then I asked, "Well, is there a Cliff's Notes for it?" She had no idea what a Cliff's Notes was, and I realized that I had unintentionally been keeping a valuable resource from my baby and her understanding of fine literature.

    We hopped on Amazon, and yes of course there were copies of the book ... and the Cliff's Notes versions. As we scrolled through the Cliff's Notes listings, we found that, also, yes, there were Notes versions of every book she'd read this year in English, and probably could have used to help understand them better.

    So, I've failed her. Because the idea of the Notes came so quickly and easily to my mind that she said to me, "Really? You didn't think of this before?" I can't imagine why I didn't think of it, but then I did, and, not to brag, but I never had to use them. So I'd never bought one. But as of now, I've bought one, and it will be used. And now that the Notes are fresh in mind, I have a feeling we'll be making an investment a few more times before graduation.