http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16896661
Leading Charles Dickens biographer Claire Tomalin has said children are not being taught to read with the attention span necessary to appreciate the novelist's works.Tomalin said Dickens's depiction of an unequal society was still "amazingly relevant", ahead of nationwide celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Children were now unable to appreciate this due to "being reared on dreadful television programmes", she said in an interview with the Press Association.
"Children are not being educated to have prolonged attention spans and you have to be prepared to read steadily for a Dickens novel and I think that's a pity."
On Tuesday, events will take place around the UK to celebrate Dickens's bi-centenary.
They include a street party in Portsmouth, Hampshire, where the novelist was born.
Do your kids have any Dickens classics on their bookshelves then?
I admit mine didn't read any at home but a few were covered at school.
DD1 is 11 and in primary 7. Their major topic for the whole school year is the Victorians and as part of that she has had abridged versions of several Dickens novels. We have a few of the full editions in the house so we gave her Great Expectations to read when the school gave her their version. She then read The Old Curiosity Shop. She has since bought herself a Kindle and asked me to download some Dickens onto it and has already read Oliver Twist and is currently reading David Copperfield.
Not yet, but plenty of time for that!