Ray Bradbury gave a characteristically prescient interview to the Seattle Times over 30 years ago, in 1993. “The problem in our country isn’t with books being banned, but with people no longer reading,” the Fahrenheit 451 author said. “Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us — it’s all junk, all trash, tidbits of news.”

Then came the kicker: “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

Publishing houses and English teachers alike now lament that “nobody reads these days,” but it’s more complicated than adults scrapping their novels for more Facebook time. The stifling of literary exploration starts young — and it happens even in........

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