“Our children’s lives are bathed in information. So why aren’t they reading books?

“Young people now consume more than eight hours of media daily — music, video games, TV, movies and Internet. The result? Teachers are struggling to keep up.

“Over the past 30 years, the proportion of teens who say they ‘never’ or ‘hardly ever’ read books for fun has grown threefold.”

—USA Today

The statement above was the introduction to a book review, the beginning of the national newspaper’s look at “Lit Up,” authored by longtime magazine writer David Denby.

In fact, the book’s full title is even more descriptive: “Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives.”

Denby is a 70-something reporter who considers himself a classics expert, and the experiment that fueled this current title came about because Denby — whose best-known previous work was called “Great Books” — believed exactly what you just read in that USA Today snippet: that American teen-agers have stopped reading.

In an interview on National Public Radio, Denby said that at the beginning of his project to visit three New York-area high schools, he asked one 15-year-old why he didn’t read meaningful books, and the kid replied: “Books smell like old people.”

There is no denying that Denby had a valid question to be answered. This may be, as one teen put it to him, the “Netflix generation.”

Exactly how well Denby handled the project and whether his conclusions are accurate is for readers and critics to decide.

But one reaction to “Lit Up” is that local schools, teachers, librarians, parents and kids themselves are free to answer Denby’s questions for themselves.

And in North Idaho, the response seems to be fairly uniform: Teens here not only aren’t illiterate, they’re actually pretty regular readers of material far beyond “People” magazine.

“Overall, I’m very optimistic about our young people and their reading habits,” said Bette Ammon, director of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.

“Our counts from nine years ago (considered the true beginning of the Internet age for teens) to the present are really pretty consistent in terms of kids and the books they read.”

Ammon conceded that study is still needed to understand the impact of e-books, but she certainly didn’t seem bothered by it.

“There’s a lot of great writing out there for teenage readers,” she said. “And I think everyone agrees that once reading becomes a habit, you tend to keep on reading as you get older, become adults and so on.”

ONE OF Denby’s initial complaints, as you’d expect from a man devoted to classic literature, was that kids today are reading fluff — that a book about vampires hardly has the same impact on your life as Shakespeare.

No one in Kootenai County, certainly, has suggested that the classics are a waste of time.

In fact, Chris Johnson tells his English classes at Post Falls High that classics are “universal,” that the messages in such books are pertinent to current society.

Johnson says he routinely gives that response when his students say: “What can I learn from a book written 300 years ago?”

But Johnson, like most other educators in the area, agrees that the first step is always to get kids to read ... something. Anything.

He said one of his most gratifying experiences was hearing a student in a summer school class say: “That’s the first book I ever finished.”

THAT SEEMS to be the point.

You can’t be a regular reader — and eventually a competent writer in adult life — without starting somewhere.

“Sure, it’s great if you see kids take big steps, and begin to tackle books that are out of their normal comfort zone,” said Kiersten Kerr, who runs the media center and library at Coeur d’Alene High.

“But the truth is, I’m happy if they just keep reading — no matter what the book.”

Kerr points out that the county has an outstanding library system, which includes a satellite facility at Lake City High.

“The Coeur d’Alene library and the Hayden library are terrific,” Kerr said. “They are always coming up with events and ideas, things like book clubs for students.

“There’s also tremendous support in the community for reading and all that it offers teens and younger kids going forward. Our theme park, Silverwood, offers free day passes for elementary and middle school students who complete 10 hours of reading. That’s fantastic.

“The conversation is usually about high school kids — because that’s where people begin worrying about Twitter, video games and all of that — but our programs start in kindergarten and we stick with it all the way through high school.”

Kerr is relentlessly optimistic, and also an advocate for just about any organized reading event.

“You know, Teen Reading Week is coming up — Oct. 9 through 15,” she said with the zeal of a Realtor closing a sale on a million-dollar home. “Events where kids read together bring amazing results.

“I honestly don’t know where people get the idea that, just because we have more technology these days, teens don’t want to read. Give them a chance, and they will.”

POST FALLS HIGH has teachers who seem to be attacking the issue in different ways, but finding similar success.

Johnson freely admits he’d like to push his kids toward the classics, while Megan Frison takes another route with her sophomore English classes.

“We’ve started a program called ‘Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends,’” she said. “The kids can start with books that are right in their interest level — things like ‘The Alchemist’ or the ‘Twilight’ series. Books like that.

“They choose what they’re going to enjoy, and the bottom line is that it puts books in their hands, which really is the key to everything. And what’s funny is that they begin drifting toward somewhat more thought-provoking books without really even noticing.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The whole thing kind of sparked interest in literature.”

Frison, who started with one class of “Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends” and now has four, believes passionately that teachers cannot let up when it comes to keeping their young charges reading.

During free time in her class, books are mandatory.

“Kids who don’t have books in front of them aren’t likely to read,” she said with the hint of a laugh, “so we keep a mini-library available. Whatever they want to read, we’ll find it. Anything is OK, except not reading at all.”

Frison also had plenty of praise for the Post Falls district hierarchy, in particular for its willingness to allow its teachers some freedom — as long as they get results and meet test scores.

“I taught in Spokane,” she said, “and everything was much more rigid. There was one path to follow, and one method for everything. It’s so much more open in Post Falls, and I think both teachers and students benefit from it.”

SO IS there a specific takeaway from reactions throughout Kootenai County and the surrounding area?

Would David Denby have been surprised if he’d left the immediate environs of New York City and talked to teens in North Idaho?

“I’m convinced that kids here get started reading early — parents are a big part of that — and generally, they keep on going,” Kerr said.

“We can do things like introduce them to different genres, and see what they want to read. Sometimes they really surprise you with books they choose, and that’s great.

“No matter what level it is, or what type of books we’re talking about, though, I believe the key is that they really need to be reading for enjoyment.

“That’s how the habit forms that takes you all the way through life.”

Denby’s year-plus experiment ended successfully, by his account. Students who almost flatly refused to read were forced into it, and some came around.

Perhaps in that environment, Denby thought it was the best that could be achieved — even if it was often difficult.

He occasionally described teachers fighting the battle as “heroic.”

That description doesn’t seem to fit in this neighborhood — although the teachers are incredibly dedicated and some students need encouragement.

“I’m very optimistic,” Johnson said. “Young people who are more or less pushed into reading turn it into something positive.

“Once students get to that point, our job is to make good books not just available, but desirable.

“I think our kids really want information, and literature is the glue that holds society together.”

Consensus: In this little corner of the world, it’s holding together very well, one book at a time.