A good, wise read for a Sunday morning on the problem of hearkening back to - and not questioning - classic children's literature. https://www.tes.com/news/why-nostalgia-classic-childrens-books-problem

I love me some classic children's lit, but it's important to recognise where and when to read them. And how. And who made them classic in the first place. And that we don't perpetuate a canon of literature that was rampantly exclusive in the first place.

(me, still not quite over Humphrey Carpenter's 'everything by women and / or about the domestic is Not Of Interest' vibe).

It's also important to remember that the books we read as children and that worked for us may not work for others. Childhood is no monolithic thing (I actually think we should pluralise 'childhood' much more than we do) and there is no one book fits all.

So read critically, read wisely, read wildly; read with hindsight, read with ambition, read with awareness; read hopefully, read questioningly, read.

And remember - always - that your read is not the only interpretation out there.

(Also, remember to go 'lol nope' at all the critics who recommend you read books by people who are *coincidentally* exactly like them).