Case in point: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/um47dtxR-uA
There's a larger discussion to be had about what is and is not relevant anymore and what has and has not been relevant for decades. As a child of divorce, I got way more out of *You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown* than I did out of any of the Newbery Award books written in or before the 1950s. If reading is to teach kids anything about navigating the real world, maybe *Hatchet* needs to be dropped in one where you can't take sharp objects onto a plane anymore. In a world where small children can be quoted with "I was so scared; I'd never been in a school shooting before," maybe field medicine feels a little more useful.
And frankly, I don't think the general Newbery vibe of "it's never too early for your childhood to be over" *sucks.* We have better science now. Let kids be kids.
The world is not like it was in the '50s. Hell, the world isn't even like it was in the '80s or early '90s. A lot has changed in 30 years. Very quickly, I might add.
