Children Will Read If They’re Encouraged

Shakespeare he ain’t, but Tom Clancy is a great writer. So why does his newest book, Op Center, stink? Because he didn’t write it. He and a partner outlined the plot, and a third party they refuse to name wrote the book. A few years ago, a wiser Clancy said: “Giving your book to Hollywood is like turning your daughter over to a pimp.” Now, the marketing industry has captured him in its diseased embrace.

The same disaster has befallen one of the classics of children’s literature. Hollywood recently produced a popular film version of Little Women. Some dim bulb in the marketing department decided to supplement the profits with a paperback version. But the original book contains long sentences, Victorian sermonettes and other qualities Hollywood views as a kiss of death. So Louisa May Alcott’s 500-page classic was rewritten, shrunk to 130 pages.

Great literature does not derive its greatness from a story line. The classics live and breathe with the complex genius of the author’s personality, vocabulary, writing style, values, imagination and subtle twists of plot. Without Hemingway’s taut style, The Old Man and The Sea is just a fishing trip.

That’s why Clancy’s Op Center is a limp substitute for one of his authentic techno-thrillers. That’s why the short version of Little Women is a disservice to the next generation of readers.

But kids nowadays won’t read long books, say the mass marketers - and too many educators. Wrong. Kids can. Some do.

The only obstacle is expectations. If the adult world deems children incapable of sitting still for an intellectual challenge and denies them the opportunity to do so, guess what? Mediocrity wins.

Parents and teachers, you can buck the trend. When children are young, read to them in the words of the master storytellers. Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Laura Ingalls Wilder, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Louis Stevenson … And one day, they’ll open Treasure Island and find that buried gold themselves. They’ll be Kidnapped by your Great Expectations.

What’s more, as the years go by and they grow into a love affair with literature, they’ll become good writers, competent spellers. Because you can’t learn English from a rule book or a multiplechoice test or even from reading one short novel a year. And you certainly won’t learn it from Hollywood. Try the library.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: For opposing view see headline; Short versions help get kids to read Con-condensed It’s a disservice to readers

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