The Terrible Trivium and other matters
I admit it - I enjoy children's books. My excuse is reading them to my kids. When they all grow up I'll have to rent kids so I can read to them. Compare picture books for kids to power point presentations designed for executives: both assume a short attention span and try to get the point across powerfully and with images as an aid. The picture books tend to be more honestly informative, but otherwise not so different.
Where else would I have time to delve into the life of Leonardo da Vinci, dolphin behaviour, or the invention of steamboats and submarines? And who else would point out the dangers of the Terrible Trivium if not for Norton Juster, author of the Phantom Tollbooth in which the protagonist faces this most terrible of fiends, "demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit." As the Terrible Trivium says, "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing..." Indeed.