“Concerns about literary merit…seem to float high above the realities of what many educators agree [is] a literacy crisis. In urging his audience to see children’s books as ‘real books,’ Barnett skips over larger questions about why so many children aren’t reading books at all, real or otherwise.”
www.newyorker.com
The nation’s official advocate for children’s books says most of them are “crud.” But matters of literary quality don’t explain why kids aren’t reading.