Update

I disagree with rewriting an author's work for any reason, let alone for the kids. If you're offended by a book, don't read it. The virtue of the printed word is that it's one of the few cultural objects you can avoid easily (good luck getting that shit off your phone). Don't update movies, either. Han shoots first.

Art should always be seen in context. There's a critical fantasy that Great Works (written, painted, whatever – yawn) are universal and transcend cultural boundaries and The Times In Which We Live. This is BS: all creativity is moored in the moment. An idea begins to age from the second it's expressed. The contemporary aspect of art is the audience: it's the reader's experience that brings a book alive.

On a more prosaic level, the task of updating said works would be endless. Removing the racist parts of the James Bond novels would shorten them to almost nothing. Fleming's stories are the jet-age flameout of Kipling and H Rider Haggard. They were old-fashioned before the ink dried. Want a new Bond or Wonka? Go make one. That's what the living writers are for.