The kids are alright
For all the commotion about how our kids are all getting stupider (other people’s kids of course; no parent’s going to admit that their own kids are retarded), this poll of children’s reading habits is pretty reassuring. I read nothing but Match magazine until the age of 11, had a brief fling with Smash Hits whilst discovering music and, during my 15-year-old sticky underpants phase, panted guiltily over the pages of FHM. I was bought C.S. Lewis but never read it, collected Horrible History books that are still in pristine condition and hadn’t even heard of Anne Frank until GCSE History. Far from being dumbed-down, these kids are in a far better shape than I was ever in
