Children lack ability for Dickens, says biographer Tomalin

I know counterexamples. My second son read Oliver Twist at no more than sixth-grade age (as I just verified by asking him what Dickens he remembers reading). We homeschool all our children, and we make sure that they learn to read thoroughly.

http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Linguistic-Approach-Leonard-Bloom...

Then they are at liberty to read whatever they want, whenever they want. Fitting today's generation of readers, they all read a lot of "high fantasy" (Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, etc.) and plenty of nonfiction on favorite subjects (e.g., mathematics, biology, history) but they are also well able and willing to read classic novels. I do get the impression, from observing what children in our community check out when they visit the local library, and from observing how infrequently some of them visit the local library, that Dickens is considered challenging reading in today's world. See also

http://www.pacinfo.com/~handley/orsig/highschool.html

for the suggestion that Oliver Twist is a senior-high-level book, which would be surprising to any of my four children.