Outdoors

Little girl reads Bambi storybook to a fawn in her yard

This scene is so idyllic, it’s hard to believe it’s real: a little girl sits in her yard reading a storybook aloud to a rapt audience of one. The book? Bambi. Her audience? A tiny fawn, nestled in a rocky garden feet away.

The girl’s mother came across this charming vignette and filmed the entire encounter, which lasts several minutes. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a little girl enchant a fawn, but it is certainly the most literary interspecies meeting we can recall.

The fawn is, for the most part, an excellent listener, chewing quietly on some plant matter and relaxing in the shade — that is, until the story’s end. As the video’s author speculates in her Youtube description, it seems the deer has already heard the ending to this one. As the story draws near its close, the deer gets up, shakes its little tail, and wanders away. And you thought your kids had short attention spans!