Owen asked Rick Riordan:

Are you optimistic—or at the very least hopeful—about the future market for children's literature in the coming years and decades? While there will always be children who love to read, it seems as though reading among younger generations is declining. What can authors, publishers, or educators do to reinvigorate a child's desire to read, and are there innovative approaches or past successes that give you hope?

Rick Riordan Tough question! There are always reasons for optimism and pessimism. I think writing for kids is like keeping a campfire lit. You can't be sure how many people will come to the fireside, how many will get warmth or benefit from the light, maybe even use it to cook something nourishing for themselves, but we just have to tend the fire as best we can, because sitting in total darkness is not an option.

Young people have a lot of other ways to find entertainment and information aside from reading books. That's definitely true. On the other hand, older generations have been decry the entertainment habits of younger generations since humans were writing on papyrus and clay tablets. I try to remember history when I worry about the youth of today, because this has always been a concern, and yet kids somehow manage to muddle through, and many of them do so with the comfort of books!

In 1790, folks were complaining that reading fiction itself was ruining kids: "The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth; and prevented others from improving their minds in useful knowledge."
(Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, Reverend Enos Hitchcock)

In the 1870-80s, parents associations were formed to combat insidious forms of cheap entertainment like the Ragged Dick stories of Horatio Alger, which were keeping kids from reading more edifying stories. Around this time, too, Mark Twain was writing a book about how Tom Sawyer would do ANYTHING to get out of school and avoid reading books.

In the 1930s, radio was the new demon, and parents complained that Dick Tracy and similar shows were promoting violence and shortening attention spans.

Then there was TV, then video games, then the Internet, then social media. You get the idea. It's always something, and kids will always have other things to tempt them away from books. We know, sadly, that most adults do NOT grow up to become readers, at least from statistics in the U.S., but some do, and I believe that the best we can do is offer kids appealing, fun, relevant, powerful books that give them the best chance to discover that reading is enjoyable and rewarding, not just a chore assigned in school. I do find comfort in the fact that the VAST majority of young readers prefer physical books to e-readers, because they want the experience of reading a book to be different, a break from the relentless onslaught of screen time. They recognize that there is value, comfort and tranquility in turning pages.

So, as with so many things, I think you can look at the lay of the land and see bleak desolation, or you can see resilience and promise that something will grow from the soil. All we can do is keep the fire lit for those who want to enjoy it and tend it after we're gone.

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