Good Books are Elemental

I hope you notice I'm taking the higher plain this morning and completely ignoring the puny participation in the Texas Jot Weight Loss Team. If you won't improve your health, maybe you will improve your mind.
A voracious reader from childhood, my reading was on a hiatus for almost ten years following a series of eye surgeries. In the last year, my brain has somehow learned to compensate for my lack of vision and I can read something longer than a paragraph without getting a headache. I have no idea how this happened, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I just accept it and hope it lasts.
Naturally, like someone on a diet for ten years (yes, this is a slight dig) I'm ready to gorge myself on books. In my zest to catch up on my reading, I seem to have exceeded the good book supply. TWO brought me Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book. It was okay, well-researched, but to be honest, not what I expected from a Pulitzer Prize winner and a New York Times bestselling author. I want to be captivated and entertained.
While selecting books for ONLY (age 2) I was distracted by the titles of many of the young adult books. How could one pass up, Al Capone Does My Shirts ? If you've been checking my book list, you might have noticed a large quantity of childrens' fiction. It doesn't take too much thought to figure out why these books are such good reads. They have to be well written to please, parents, teachers and librarians. Most of all, they have to capture the attention and imagination of a generation of videophiles.
I hate to throw down another gauntlet, but I challenge you to enter the world of childrens' literature. "Oh bosh!" you say..make that Pseudonymous Bosch and you'll be highly entertained. (See book list below.)