I just posted a news item (click on news and scroll down to May 16) about the so-called YA (young adult) reader, readers age 12-18. Ask me, that’s a pretty vast gulf in readers. What appeals to most 12-year-olds is unlikely to appeal to most 18-year-olds. But it’s a growing segment, much to the delight of book publishers everywhere. And they’re starting to cater to the YA crowd, finding talented writers, setting up book groups and library/bookstore sections devoted to YA readers.

As I noted in the news feed, “The Kids Are Alright,” shamelessly stealing the phrase from The Who — one of my favorite all-time bands, by the way. Other faves are the Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, U2, R.E.M., (Akron’s own) The Black Keys, the White Stripes, and a quirky bunch out of Canada, The Arcade Fire. But I digress.

The feed quoted a recent Newsweek story about the resurgent YA book sector, and while that’s kind of biz-oriented, the real story is that teens are ignoring all the hand-wringing that nobody reads anymore, that we’re raising a generation video game zombies and that this country’s going to hell in a handbasket! Well, the kids are reading. At least some of them are, and they’re reading a lot.

Exhibit A: My son, Matt, who turns 13 in June, plowed through the entire Harry Potter series in two weeks. It was spring break. How much of it he absorbed, I can’t say. But still. There are times we have to pry the PlayStation controls out of his clenched hands to get him back to reading. Ya do what ya gotta do. Daughter Lindsey, 9, is following suit. She just finished her first Harry Potter book.

But it’s not just Harry. Matt loved the Series of Unfortunate Events, following the endless series of disasters bestowed upon the Beaudelaire children. He’s into the Chronicles of Narnia (yes , we plan to see the second movie, which is getting good reviews).

My wife, DeAnne, is especially persistent in making sure the kids read, and early on we read to them.

Curiously, my boy, the son of a writer, doesn’t much care for writing. Which kills me, of course. Then again, why would he want to follow in a family biz that had me working nights, weekends and holidays, and then laid me off? Maybe he’s the smart one.

Damn you, muse!! Damn youuuuuuuuuu!

To borrow the title of an old song by The Who, “The kKids Are Alright.” Folks who desparage the current generation of kids as slack-jawed video game junkies aren’t seeing the whole picture (My son-to-be 13-year-old son is both a rabid gamer and voracious reader — he tore through the entire Harry Potter series in two weeks — ed.).

Says Newsweek: “Contrary to the depressing proclamations that American teens aren’t reading, the surprising truth is they are reading novels in unprecedented numbers. Young-adult fiction (ages 12-18) is enjoying a bona fide boom with sales up more than 25 percent in the past few years, according to a Children’s Book Council sales survey. Virtually every major publishing house now has a teen imprint, many bookstores and libraries have created teen reading groups and an infusion of talented new authors has energized the genre. ”

If you give them something besides dreary and often dreadfully written textbooks, many tweens and teens will read. Sometimes they just need a little encouragement, as in hitting the off button on the TV/game set.