Many schools don’t think students can read full novels any more. That’s a tragedy | Margaret Sullivan

Tue, 06 Jan 2026

Increasingly, teens are given only parts of books, and they often read not in print but on school-issued laptops

Reading fiction has been such a joy for me that my heart broke a little to learn recently that many schools no longer assign full books to high school students.

Rather, teens are given excerpts of books, and they often read them not in print but on school-issued laptops, according to a survey of 2,000 teachers, students and parents by the New York Times.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture