Putting the Show on the Road: An Introduction

      I keep hesitating, not sure if what I have to say is interesting or unusual enough for anyone out there to listen. All I want to do is share my experiences in literature with others. I work in a book shop, so I get to do just that at work every now and again. It's a great gig, and I love it. But more often than not, I feel ill equipped to make suggestions to our customers. So many of our customers come in searching for the new Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, Oprah Book Club or Social Science book they saw on television, and while I do not mean any disrespect to any of these authors or genres, they just aren't my style. I like my literature a little less main stream... and a little less grown up.

     I can't tell you how many times I have been regarded with dubious, condescending or just plain baffled expressions when I admit to a customer that I haven't read the latest Stephen King novel because I spend most of the precious little reading time I get reading children's literature. "Why?" they ask. "Why would you want to read kid's books? Aren't you a little old for that?" And suddenly I feel like Bridget Jones being asked yet again when she's going to settle down. More and more adults are reading kid and teen fiction these days. Just look at the phenomenons behind the Harry Potter Series and the Twilight Saga. Nearly as many adults read them as do children and teens. And yet some adults are still surprised to hear that someone in her twenties enjoys young adult fiction. I enjoy the feeling of nostalgia that I experience when I read about a young character experiencing something I have felt or done myself. I enjoy the magic and wonder that authors can infuse their writing with without shame when they write for young audiences who haven't yet given up on such things. 

      Children's literature is incredible brain food! So often, it is written with intensity, color, passion and zeal that I find lacking in much of the fiction out there for adults. This isn't to say that I never venture out of the kid fic section. I do. But I keep going back, again and again. 

      And more than the simple appeal the genre has for me personally, I feel that I take something else important away from indulging in this guilty pleasure. When a parent comes in with a child who doesn't like to read, I am ready with suggestions to peak their interest. I have personal experience with the good, the bad and the silly tools that may move a kid's eyes from the television screen to the pages of a book. Think back to the books you read as a child. Chances are that you remember them better than books you may have read recently. The things we experience as children leave such deep impressions. It is so exciting to know that you are helping to cultivate an imagination. So the question I want to ask is "Why wouldn't I read children's literature?" 

       Add to all this a desire to write that just won't be quashed, and certainly won't sit quietly in my mind, and a wild, deviant, six toed kitten named Circus who's imaginative shenanigans are the inspiration for the name of this blog; and I have myself a project. I'll fill this space with my impressions of the books that I read. Whether anyone stumbles across my little home on the net or not, I have no idea. Only time will tell. 

Hazel.