How do you inspire your child to read the classics?

I have begun to read The Secret Garden aloud to the girls this week.  I have read a few longer books to them before: The Wind in the Willows, Little House in the Big Woods, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc.  I feel like this has been good for them on multiple levels.  They learn patience for a long drawn-out story versus the short quick ones they get in picture books.  They gain valuable moral lessons from higher quality literature.  They get exposure to a wider vocabulary.  And probably most important to me right now, they get in the habit of being read to every day.

I don't require their full-attention; I don't expect them to sit still or look at the words with me.  But I do expect them (especially R) to listen.

I make it fun and engaging. I stop and talk a lot, asking questions and making sure R is following the story line or drawing out the most important lessons.

When we last read, we got to the part of the book where (if you're familiar with the story) Martha's mother, a very poor mother of twelve children, out of the sweet goodness of her heart buys Mary a jump-rope with the little money she has.  She doesn't personally know Mary.  Martha is Mary's friend but also her maid, and Mary is the remarkably wealthy and spoiled child who lives with her uncle in a mansion.  But she is orphaned and lonely, and Martha's mother feels compassion for her and her situation.

I was so touched by this part of the story.  Granted, it is just a story.  But the truth is that there are people out there like this, who sacrifice every day for others even though they themselves are in need. What a great lesson in Christlike love.

Did R fully grasp it?  I don't know. Probably not.  But maybe, just maybe, our reading classic books together every day will cultivate a desire within her to read classic books on her own someday which will unlock the door to a wealth of equally wonderful moral lessons to be learned.