Why Young People Are the Best Readers

My Dinotopia books are intended for all ages, but my favorite readers are between ages 8 and 18. That’s the age where their brains are almost fully wired but they’re not yet locked into routines or mortgage payments.

At St Columba’s School in Ballarat, Australia, 1993

Young people are intensely alert and alive when they read, while their parents tend to be half asleep.

Author M.T. Anderson said it well: "They haven't learned to resist stories yet. They haven't closed themselves off to worlds that might be different from their own."

They’re willing to suspend disbelief, but they’re also intensely demanding about logic and coherence. Teenagers are just as intelligent as their parents or grandparents, perhaps more so; they just don’t have as much experience.

(Read the rest of this essay on Substack)

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