Classic literature · Ages 0–10

Don Quixote

In Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote builds his helmet a cardboard visor, smashes it to bits testing it with his sword, then makes another and decides not to test that one.

Choose a bookWhy we love it
Cover of Don Quixote: A Toddler Book, for ages 0–4Ages 0–4Cover of Don Quixote: A Picture Book, for ages 3–7Ages 3–7Cover of Don Quixote: A Chapter Book, for ages 6–10Ages 6–10
Don Quixote on his horse Rocinante with a fist raised against a big sky, in cut-paper collage

A page from Don Quixote: A Toddler Book, for ages 0–4

Why we love it

Rocinante.

Before he rides anywhere, Don Quixote spends four days naming his bony old horse, and settles on a name he finds lofty and sonorous. Our toddler book has him call it out as he climbs into the saddle.

Toddler book, ages 0–4 ↓

Sancho’s donkey.

When Sancho gets his stolen donkey back, he hugs and kisses it and calls it his comrade, and the donkey lets him without a word. In our picture book, Sancho checks with his donkey before he agrees to go.

Picture book, ages 3–7 ↓

Teresa's question.

When Sancho gets home, his wife Teresa is waiting with one question: did you get your island? He shakes his head, goes back to the same old fields the next morning, and is different inside. In Cervantes' Part Two Sancho does get to govern an island, for about ten days, and gives it up on his own.

Chapter book, ages 6–10 ↓

Which book for your child?

Cover of Don Quixote: A Toddler Book, for ages 0–4

Ages 0–4 · Toddler book · Read to them

Don Quixote: A Toddler Book

A skinny horse, rusty armor, and a windmill that wins. An old man reads so many books about knights that one morning he says “I am one.” He charges a windmill, gets knocked down, and gets right back up. Then he meets Sancho Panza, and the two of them ride out together.

24 pages · about 350 words · cut-paper collage

Good to know
When things go wrong, Don Quixote ends up “dusty and bumped and sore,” and Sancho is there to help. The last page has the two friends riding off, still looking for new adventures.
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An old bearded man lifts a metal helmet onto his head, with a breastplate on a chair and an open chest of armor beside him, in cut-paper collage
One day he said, "I am a knight too!" He put on some old, rusty armor.
Don Quixote on his gray horse points up at a dragon-shaped cloud above a flock of sheep on a green hill, in cut-paper collage
He saw magic in everything around him. A flock of sheep was an army! A cloud was a dragon!
The knight and Sancho asleep under a big tree, curled up with the horse and the donkey, in cut-paper collage
The tall, thin knight and his short, round friend. So different. But they fit just right.
Cover of Don Quixote: A Picture Book, for ages 3–7

Ages 3–7 · Picture book · Read together

Don Quixote: A Picture Book

Six real episodes from the novel, not just the windmills. A caged lion that yawns and lies back down. A puppet show destroyed mid-rescue. A barber’s basin seized as a golden helmet. And by a campfire, Sancho asks “Do you really believe all of this?” The comedy and the sincerity live in the same story.

36 pages · about 870 words · soft crayon

Good to know
Some men at an inn toss Sancho in a blanket, calling it fun, while he yells for help; he lands dizzy and decides he doesn’t like inns. The rest of the mishaps are slapstick, and the book ends with the two friends still riding.
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Don Quixote bows low on a dirt road while a girl carrying a basket walks away without turning around, in soft crayon
“She is a PRINCESS,” said Don Quixote. And he bowed so low his tin bucket helmet almost fell right off his head. She still didn’t look up.
Don Quixote stands with one foot on a rock and his hands on his hips beside a sleeping lion, while Sancho peeks in from the side, in soft crayon
“I am the bravest knight in all of Spain!” said Don Quixote. The lion was already snoring.
The puppet man sits among broken wood and scattered puppet heads, holding a small princess puppet, in soft crayon
But the puppet man did not say thank you! He didn’t say anything at all. He held the princess and wondered what exactly he’d been saved from.
Cover of Don Quixote: A Chapter Book, for ages 6–10

Ages 6–10 · Chapter book · They start reading alone

Don Quixote: A Chapter Book

The whole story, retold. A Duke and Duchess who invite Don Quixote to their castle just to humiliate him. Sancho, who confronts them. A duel on a beach that forces the knight home. And an ending, four centuries old, that lands the question Cervantes left open squarely on your child.

84 pages · about 7,300 words · 22 black-and-white drawings

Good to know
A boy is whipped, Don Quixote is beaten by merchants and hit by shepherds’ rocks, and at the end he gives up being a knight and dies in bed with Sancho holding his hand. Afterward Sancho stands outside at night, looks at the stars, and cries for him.
Also inside
A foreword tells how Cervantes was a wounded soldier and a prisoner before he wrote the book, with pronunciations for the Spanish names. An afterword explains the word “quixotic” and why the pair has lasted.
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A thin, wild-haired man stares wide-eyed over the top of an open book, in black-and-white line art
Day after day, the stories seeped into him. The knights in his books became more real to him than the villagers he saw.
Sancho, seen from behind, plants his feet with fists raised in front of three riders on horseback, in black-and-white line art
"You do not know anything! Don Quixote de la Mancha is the bravest knight in all of Spain! I will fight any of you who says otherwise!"
Don Quixote with his lance on his horse and Sancho on his donkey ride side by side, with a castle behind them, in black-and-white line art
They rode on together, the knight and his squire. And Sancho protected his knight the way his knight had always protected the world.

The original

The real Don Quixote

  • Miguel de Cervantes
  • Published in 1605 and 1615
  • 126 chapters in two parts

In Part One the knight rides out alone, is brought home battered, and sets off again with Sancho. In Part Two, published ten years later, the pair are famous, and many of the people they meet have read about them in Part One.

When you want more

From the blog

Why We Made Don Quixote for Kids

Our three Don Quixote books for ages 0–10 each keep a different part of Cervantes's novel, from the windmill charge to the Duke's cruel castle pranks.

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