We kind of have a bone to pick with Rebecca Mead’s assessment of Rick Riordan���s series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Mead cautions the reader that while the stories are palatable, and make Greek mythology more accessible to young readers, it may stunt their ability to seek out more mature books.

Gaiman���s view that any book that is avidly embraced can serve as a gateway to an enduring love of reading is surely true: my own earliest literary love affair was with Enid Blyton, that mid-century spinner of mysteries and boarding-school stories, who is among the authors Gaiman lists as having been deemed bad for children. But the metaphor of the gateway should prompt caution, too, since one can go through a gate in two directions. What if the strenuous accessibility of ���Percy Jackson���s Greek Gods��� proves so alluring to young readers that it seduces them in the opposite direction from that which Gaiman���s words presuppose���away from an engagement with more immediately difficult incarnations of the classics, Greek and otherwise?

Give kids a break. Young readers are far more sophisticated than we give them credit.

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Get the full story at The New Yorker.