Adult Literacy at All-time High as More Kids Books are Made into Movies

FRANKLIN, NH — Every Who down in Whoville likes reading a lot, but adults just 17 years ago did not. A study done in 1999 by a respectable university that would prefer to remain anonymous found that only 49% of US adults considered themselves to be well read. Today, a follow up study finds that 97% of adults possess a working knowledge of popular literature and are able to effectively reference books in everyday workplace conversations.

So what changed? The answer might surprise you. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone single handedly changed the way American adults thought about books, in that it made them think about books at all.

“I remember my daughter was 11 when she read the first one,” recalls 51-year-old Deb Wixon. “When I saw her finish [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone] I thought, hey I can do that!”

Inspired by her daughter’s newfound love of the written word, Deb Wixon opened the debut novel by J.K. Rowling. A novel that would inspire the whole world to go to the movies.

Deb’s daughter, now 25-year-old Annabelle Wixon-Thomas, was an avid “Potterhead” throughout her middle school years.

“My friend gave me the [Sorcerer’s Stone] for my 10th or 11th birthday and I was hooked instantly! I loved it so much and I remember making my mom take me to the movie the day it came out.”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came out on the big screen in 2001, coincidentally the same year that the respectable university that would prefer to remain anonymous (or the “University-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” for you Potterheads) began seeing an increase in adult literacy.

“I got Chamber of Secrets and Azkaban for my next birthday and read them both right away, back to back,” Annabelle tells us. “But by the time the 4th one came out, Goblet of Something or Whatever, they just got too long.”

“She was in high school maybe?” her mother, Deb, thinks back. “I think I drove her to the bookstore to get the 4th book, but when she saw how long it was we just decided to see the movie instead.”

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came to theaters in 2005, and here is where American literacy had its first major spike, with 62% of adults reporting to be “bookish” or “nerdy” to friends and colleagues.

“Well I work, my husband works, the kids were busy with school and sports and all that. We really didn’t have the time to read a book that long,” says Deb Wixon. “But we always went out to see the movies when they came out, just to keep up with the story, you know?”

Beginning in 2005, with Goblet of Fire, the University-That-Must-Not-Be-Named saw adults becoming interested in reading like never before. More adults were talking about books than researchers ever thought possible.

“Our study has shown that adults truly want to connect with fictional characters,” says Dr. James Bradbury, a top researcher at the University-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. “It’s just so hard to care about them when they’re just some words on a piece of paper.”

“It’s not about reading the books, it’s about talking about the books,” adds Luke O’Connor, a less important researcher who only has a bachelor’s degree at the University-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. “People don’t have the time to read, but thanks to movie adaptations of books they can still talk about literature with their nerdier book friends.”

In more recent years, Hollywood has brought us some of the greatest books ever written for a 5th Grade Reading Level. Hunger Games and Divergent tell the story of a headstrong, individualistic teenager fighting for survival in a dystopian society. 2014’s The Giver and The Maze Runner also explored these themes in exactly the same way that we’ve already seen a million times before. 2016’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will likely explore these themes for the million-and-oneth time.

“I was supposed to read The Giver in like 5th grade,” recalls Annabelle Wixon-Thomas, whose bookshelf is filled with DVD’s, “but I think the cover was just too grey and boring. The movie was really cool though! Lots more colors and stuff!”

“These books really make you think, which can be hard to handle sometimes,” explains Deb Wixon, “the movies really help me process the ideas in those books. I bring up the future of our government all the time thanks to Hunger Games. I’m wondering if Miss Peregrine’s Mutant Hogwarts will tie the series together.”

Many people just like Deb Wixon mistakenly think that Tim Burton’s upcoming film, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, is part of an existing franchise. Either Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner, or one of the countless others. They haven’t actually read the books so it’s easy to understand their confusion.

“Wait, this is a different movie book? Whatever. They’re all more or less the same anyways,” added Deb.

“We were shocked to see 75–90% of adults talking about politics and religion from 2005–2010, but it correlates perfectly with the release dates of the Chronicles of Narnia films,” a stunned Dr. James Bradbury tells us, “and we’ve seen scrawnier, introverted kids growing up into confident adults thanks to Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games telling them it’s okay to be different.”

We asked Deb and Annabelle what they thought about violence and the concept of free-will after seeing Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novella, A Clockwork Orange. They report having no feelings on the subject as they thought the film was “so boring it felt like reading.”