Right to left

Alice likes numbers. She likes counting and adding, and she likes asking me what number is made by multiple digits in a row. She is interested in the idea that read left to right, a series of digits signify one number, but if read right to left, they signify a different number.

She is applying the concept more widely.

Thanks to Alice we had a backseat viewing of The Lion King almost every day of our cross-country drive. It's her favorite movie right now. Today she found a picture-book version of the movie at her grandparents' house. She looked at it for awhile, then came and told us she wants to be Simba.

It's true she has been pretending to be a lion cub quite a bit recently, with a convincing roar. But...

"Really?" I asked. "Lion King is such a sad story."

"Oh," said Alice happily, "but I read the story backwards. So Simba's daddy comes back to life, and it's a great story."