I found a beautiful hard bound copy a few years ago and re-read it. Just fantastic. As soon as I finished, I handed it to a young teen who was nearby and suggested he try an adventure story of a boy his age. He looked at me as if I were from Mars and set the book down and returned to his iPhone game. My guess the book was in the trash that night.
—I suspect that would be the response of most of young people-—sadly-—
My granddaughter, soon to turn 8, is an avid reader. For a couple years, I was disappointed to see her favoring the “comic book” type reading options. This past Christmas, I gave her 2 books of “classics” short stories. and now she has requested more “classics”.
For her birthday, we bought TWELVE “classics” for her, ranging from Heidi, to Swiss Family Robinson, to Call of the Wild. It makes me SO happy that she wants to go in that direction now.