It's the Hardy Boys fault.
Or rather, the company behind it, the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Over a 100 years ago, they decided to start deliberately courting children as customers by creating series tailored for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratemeyer_Syndicate
Quote:
For decades, libraries refused to carry any Syndicate books, notoriously considering them to be unworthy trash. Series books were considered to “cause ‘mental laziness,’ induce a ‘fatal sluggishness,’ and ‘intellectual torpor.'"[15] Series books were considered to ruin a child’s chances for gaining an appreciation of good literature (subsequent studies have proven this not to be the case[16]), and to undermine respect for authority: “’much of the contempt for social conventions ... is due to the reading of this poisonous sort of fiction.’
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So instead, they forced children to read books that adult liked. But as you say, sort of backfired