In my earlier post on the WSJ's sad little story about young adult summer reading lists, author Paul Acampora provided a comment and a link to his blog, where he followed up on a particular quote from a Notre Dame professor:
That such books might keep kids reading is a meager defense. If that's the point, asks Mary Burgess, a professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, "Why not have them read cereal boxes?" Such lists, by offering mere "formula fiction," represent "a lost opportunity," she says. "They put kids into a real comfort zone."
As it turns out, Burgess got blindsided and misquoted by a former student who is now an INTERN at the WSJ. (Feel free to insert your intern jokes here.) Paul has a nice writeup on his follow-up interview with Burgess at his site and everyone following this story needs to read it. (If Paul's name is familiar its because I loved his book, Defining Dulcie, and Leila did too!)
Paul also links to multiple other sites following this story and specifically mentions author Laurie Halse Anderson's entry about how effective teaching the classics is in the first place. (Maybe we should just let the kids discover them on their own.)
