Inside UDJ by Editor K.C. Meadows

There's a new report out from the National Endowment for the Arts which concludes that young people who don't read regularly, get lower grades overall, even in math and science. The study, drawn from a variety of sources of information from the Labor Department to the Census Bureau, indicates that young people whose parents don't read and who live in homes with no or few books, are likely to do worse in school even if those parents are college educated. In other words, the kids whose parents had only a high school education but whose homes were filled with books, got better reading and other scores than those in higher earning homes where books were not present.
The question of course is how to get kids interested in reading.
I am a life long reader and I can't imagine a home without books. I read voraciously and I am always astounded when I go to someone's home - say my own sister's - where books are simply not present. Sure, there's a big reading orgy when a new Harry Potter arrives, and that's fine, but what about the rest of the year?
I have been trying with some success to encourage what looks like a burgeoning reading habit in my 12-year-old niece. I introduced her to Little House of the Prairie series when she was 8 and the the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books a year later. What I found discouraging, however, was that her public elementary school in Fresno forced its students only to read what was on its approved reading list. Each student had to earn a certain number of "reading points" every year. But those points could only be earned by reading books the school had on its approved list - the list was also categorized by age group so even if my niece wanted to and was ready for more advanced reading, it would not count. So when I would take my niece to the book store and suggest a book to her that I was sure she'd love, she'd look at it and sigh, and tell me it wasn't on the list. In her mind it wasn't worth reading a book that didn't count against her quota at school. I couldn't argue with that but it occurred to me that while the school thought it was encouraging reading, it was really discouraging students with an urge to read and it was limiting the scope of their reading.
Of course, all the electronic materials in kids' hands these days are taking up time a child might otherwise use for reading a good book.
Are books for young people any good these days? That's a question I don't know a lot about since I don't read most of them - except Harry Potter which I love. To be honest, when I read reviews of young people's literature and a new book is about a young person whose life is a misery of drug culture, or street violence or some other 21st century family sorrow, I have to say I avoid it along with the popular/unpopular girl travails set in suburban America.
On the other hand I did check for a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank for my niece this year on a well-known book club web site and they don't stock it.
So here are two questions to the readers out there:
1. What are your ideas for instilling a love of reading in our children?
2. Share your suggestions for good books for young people.