Scarlet Letter cover by Ruben Toledo
‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ published in 1951, is still a staple of the high school curriculum, beloved by many teachers who read and reread it in their own youth. The trouble is today’s teenagers. Teachers say young readers just don’t like Holden as much as they used to. What once seemed like courageous truth-telling now strikes many of them as ‘weird,’ ‘whiny’ and ‘immature.’
—Kids don’t like The Catcher in the Rye anymore. I find that ‘weird,’ ‘whiny’ and ‘immature’.
