The 3,5-year-old Klara, on the other hand, has no problem distinguishing between fact and fiction.
“See,” I said didactically after reading a book about a little turtle called Franklin, “when Franklin hurt his friend Bear he apologized. So what should we do when we hurt somebody?”
“Mommy,” Klara said in a condescending tone, “Franklin is not for real. He’s a character.”
I already had to warn her not to inform every kid at school that Santa is a character because that would be unkind. I have no idea how she figured it out. I was seriously set on preserving her belief in Santa until she was 10. But she’s just a different kind of kid.