I wonder if children don't begin to reject both poetry and religion for similar reasons, because the way both are taught takes the life out of them.
We can't give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.
When I was a child, it was a matter of pride that I could plow through a Nancy Drew story in one afternoon, and begin another in the evening. . . . I was probably trying to impress the librarians who kept me supplied with books.