I swim at my local JC twice a week, and with most JC classes, the students left by the middle of the semester are senior citizens (because they can take the classes for free), high school kids (because either their parents make them or they are naturally over-achieving like that), and people like me who already have their four-year university degree and are just doing it just because. Oh, the lifestyles of the over-educated and under-employed.
Since I've had nothing to do except while away my days in leisure, I've been reading a lot. Certainly among these are my favorites. I started the above book not too long ago, and have re-established my childhood habit of lugging around books with me every where. Including the pool.
I get there early on Monday and one of the older ladies in my swim class notices me reading.
Older Lady: So why is it called "The Stolen Lake."
Me: ::Looks up, slightly dazed from being engrossed in my book and from the glare bouncing off the pool surface:: Um, because someone steals a lake.
OL: ::Looks at me as if I'm crazy and scoots just a little bit further away from me::
Well, it's true. The book is set in an alternative universe where South America resembles Victorian England more than what it resembles today. There is a lake in the mountains of what would equivalently be the Andes, and because of the high altitudes and cold winters, the lake freezes solid during certain parts of the year. The king of one country cuts up this frozen lake and transports it to a hiding place because the queen of a rival country has kidnapped the king's daughter for the purpose of killing her and grinding her into porridge so that she (the queen, not the princess) can have eternal life.
I'm not saying that all children's literature is quite that off the wall. Frankly, there are some adult literature that's even crazier. But it's a kid's book for crying out loud! Did you not notice the cover illustrations, OL? Well, that's not fair, I admit. Adult literature sometimes have questionable covers.
Not that I'm angry at your for thinking I'm clinically insane. I'm used to that, actually.
But it was the look you gave my book after you gave that dirty look to me. As if the book was filled with cooties about to attack your For-Nora-Roberts-Only eyes and damage them beyond repair.
To me, that's the charm of children's lit. The genre has the capacity to explore all sorts of topics and characters and still be grounded in believable emotion. Don't tell me you've never imagined yourself at Hogwarts! It's part of the magic which anyone can join. But if a full grown adult imagines themselves aboard the Voyager with Captain Kirk, they are labeled "trekkies" and put into a little box and scoffed. Which they probably deserve to be - at least the ones I've met can be exceedingly obnoxious and condescending.
Going back to the magic bit. Besides sheep herder for Samsung, if I weren't a teacher I would be in the children's literature field, producing them, reviewing them, editing them, even illustrating them. Nearly all the books in my possession and probably would never sell/donate away are children's books. They do make great reading.
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