Her face aglow as though she has a secret she can’t wait to share, Jenny Sawyer looks into a camera and begins to explain why a certain 19th-century novel is an absolute must-read.
“ ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a romance and a revenge story and a ghost story, too,’’ Sawyer begins. Then she suddenly looks offscreen, eyes widening in alarm.
“There’s someone at the window!’’ she cries, loosing a piercing, horror-movie scream. Then Sawyer resumes in a calm tone of voice: “But what this book is mostly about is passion.’’
Sawyer has a passion of her own - classic literature - that she is trying to get her teenage audience to share. That is why she is willing to ham it up occasionally as she talks about Emily Bronte’s Gothic novel in a recording studio at WGBH on a recent weekday.
Now, the very phrase “literary classic’’ is enough to make your average high-schooler recoil. Sawyer is close enough to her own teen years - she’s 29 - to know that. She is trying to reach a generation whose already-short attention spans are being eroded as they are Facebooked and MySpaced and YouTubed every waking moment of their young lives.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Sawyer has embarked on a venture as the writer and host of 60-second video introductions to classic novels on a new website called, logically enough, “60 Second Recap’’ (www.60secondrecap.com).
The site is an attempt to use new media as a bridge to an old medium - print - and to solve a problem that vexes parents and teachers everywhere: How do we persuade kids to read books that seem far removed from their own lives?
“I have had my own struggles with the classics,’’ admits Sawyer, a freelance book reviewer and aspiring author who lives in Brighton. “Shakespeare, Jane Austen: The language is ornate. Nobody talks that way anymore. So a big part of “Recap’’ is to make the experience more accessible, allowing you to enjoy the story instead of obsessing over the text.’’
Toward that end, “60 Second Recap’’ organizes each book into an “album’’ that consists of a 60-second overview plus another dozen recaps, also 60 seconds apiece, that focus on various aspects of the book such as its plot, main characters, symbols, and themes. So far, the site has albums for 17 books, among them “Fahrenheit 451,’’ “Hamlet,’’ “Antigone,’’ “Catcher in the Rye,’’ “The Great Gatsby,’’ “Pride and Prejudice,’’ “To Kill a Mockingbird,’’ and “Great Expectations.’’
Sawyer is quick to point out that the recaps are not designed as a substitute for actually, you know, reading the book. “It’s like a couple of bites of a really good meal,’’ she says. “I hope it will encourage a generation of nonreaders to pick up a book.’’
The site is the brainchild of former Christian Science Monitor reporter Peter Osterlund, a Wellesley resident. One day Osterlund overheard the 16-year-old daughter of a friend complaining about having to read “The Scarlet Letter.’’ She asked: “What does this book have to do with me?’’
In an interview, Osterlund, 47, animatedly ticks off his answer to that question: “How to deal with cliques, how to deal with labels, the question of identity - isn’t this what every teen grapples with? ’The Scarlet Letter’ is the teen guide to survival!’’
He began thinking about a way to use the Web, including mobile platforms like the iPod, to get kids to engage with the classics, and to help them understand that, in his words, “These are your books. Your life will be better for having read them.’’
When Sawyer joined the project, she proved to be a natural on camera, with a likable and relaxed presence. But camera presence doesn’t pay the bills, and funding has been a struggle. “It’s kind of a race right now between finding the money to keep it going and kicking the plug out of the wall,’’ Osterlund says.
But you wouldn’t know it from the enthusiasm of the “60 Second Recap’’ team inside the recording studio as Sawyer segues from the overview of Bronte’s novel to a segment she calls “The Top Five Things You Need to Know to Understand ‘Wuthering Heights.’ ’’
No. 2 on the list is bound to be reassuring, not just to young readers but to some of us older ones who have had trouble scaling “Heights,’’ what with all those Catherines and Lintons. “If you feel confused at the beginning of this book,’’ says Sawyer, “remember this: You should.’’
Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com. 
