6-Year-Old Surprises Family by Writing Book About a Kid Who Drinks Wine. Her Parents Loved It, Then the Internet Did Too
- - 6-Year-Old Surprises Family by Writing Book About a Kid Who Drinks Wine. Her Parents Loved It, Then the Internet Did Too
David ChiuJanuary 27, 2026 at 2:30 AM
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Scout Haskel
Keith Haskel and Bethany Hall
While at her relatives' home over the holidays, Scout Haskel wrote and drew a handmade book called The Kid Who Drank Wine, an instant classic with the whole family
A few days later, Scout's mom couldn't stop thinking about the book, so she decided to film herself reading it — by the next morning, it had gone viral
"It made me laugh so hard and my family laughed so hard that I just felt like this is a little piece of joy and relatable substance — why not brighten people's day a little bit?" says mom Bethany Hall
A 6-year-old girl’s homemade picture book about a curious kid who drank wine became a hit with her own family — and it also went viral on the internet.
Parents Keith Haskel and Bethany Hall, of Montclair, N.J., tell PEOPLE that the book came about while they were visiting family over the holidays. As the adults were talking together over some wine, their daughter Scout was off on her own, writing and drawing at the kids' table.
“Scout would just come over and say, ‘How do you spell the word wine? How do you spell 'party'? How do you spell this?’ “ says Keith.
All of a sudden, he says she "came over with a fully-finished book" — he stresses that none of the adults "put any of the words in her mouth" — which everybody thought was "just hilarious."
Humor runs in the Haskel household — Keith is a comedy director and producer and Bethany is a comedian and also a comedy producer — but still, even her parents were surprised by what their daughter came up with.
“She wrote an instant bestseller in two hours!” adds Bethany.
The Kid Who Drank Wine, which is only a few pages long and filled with original drawings, is ultimately a cautionary story about what happens to a girl when she consumes wine.
The book starts off with a girl named Scout whose mother forbade her from drinking wine, a rule that the little girl decided to ignore while at a birthday party. (For the record, the whole family wants to make it clear that this never happened in real life — just in the imagination of a very creative little girl.)
"Out to dinner she drunk wine," the 6-year-old author wrote in the book. "And she got DRUNK."
And by the time the book ended, the girl had learned her lesson, saying, "I don't feel good, Mommy."
As for where the idea for the story came from, Bethany says that her daughter must have been "influenced by my mom and I hanging around and drinking some wine" — but her daughter tells PEOPLE another kind of beverage ended up inspiring her.
“I think someone mentioned when I drank a little bit of coffee, and then I wanted to make a book about a kid drinking wine,” Scout says.
Scout Haskel, 6, with her book 'The Kid Who Drank Wine'
Keith Haskel and Bethany Hall
To Keith, what was hilarious about the story was that while yes, it was a little inappropriate, it actually had a good moral to it.
Over the next few days, Bethany kept thinking about her daughter's book, and one evening after work, she asked her husband to film her reading it, because she thought, "I just have to share it with my friends."
Bethany read Scout’s book in a story hour-like format, and the couple — who previously made headlines in 2016 when they got married on the Staten Island Ferry and then took the subway to their wedding reception — posted the video on Instagram on Jan. 5, not thinking much of it. To their surprise, it went viral, getting hundreds of thousands of views.
“We don't normally showcase our kids,” Bethany says. “But it made me laugh so hard and my family laughed so hard that I just felt like this is a little piece of joy and relatable substance — why not brighten people's day a little bit? I was like, 'The people who love us are going to be amused by this thing.' ”
And that's exactly what happened.
“You can tell from the comments that it just brightened people's days," Bethany says.
“Everyone's like, ‘Can you publish it?’ " adds Keith. “I don't know if we ever will, but it's funny that people seem to find it relatable and love it."
Scout isn’t only the only creative and imaginative child in the family — her siblings Xander, 8, and Phoebe, 4 also like to write and draw.
Since her first brush with book fame, Scout has already worked on two more titles, The Kid Who Drank Coffee and The Kid Who Drank Beer, both of which similarly tackle the perils of kids consuming adult stuff, according to her Keith.
“It's definitely her own brand that she's developing and franchising, perhaps,” he jokes.
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On a serious note, Bethany says the reception to her daughter's work has led to some unexpected connections from people she went to high school and college with.
"Somebody from my church reached out and was like, ‘We had no idea Scout was such a writer,' " she adds.
"At the risk of sounding too corny,” she says, “especially as a comedy family, I'm so pleased that we were able to share this little piece of fun and hilarity and kid shenanigans with people that really struck a chord with folks.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
