Friday favorites: Children's literature

Last week’s Friday favorites were about dads. This week, they’re about kids – or, rather, children’s literature.

Slate’s recent rant about “The Poky Little Puppy” prompted a whole roundup from Flavorwire on the worst canonical children’s books and what should replace them.

Then Huffington Post showed us just how watered-down another classic — Nancy Drew — became over the course of her lifetime. Some of our Facebook fans were lucky enough to have read the original version; others had no idea that Nancy used to pack heat and drive recklessly.

In a similar vein, young adult fiction has taken a dystopian turn of late (see “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent,” etc.). The Guardian explains what this shows us about the state of our world.

On a lighter note, though, submissions poured in when The Guardian invited readers to add to its list of the kindest characters in children’s literature. (Did anyone still get overlooked?)

And BookRiot has some excellent pairings of YA and adult books.

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give ourselves a pat on the back for helping Care.com pick 20 timeless bedtime stories.

Happy reading and happy Friday!