I was definitely the kind of kid who read the forwards and essays included in the classic literature that I read, and the first time I read Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, it was the annotated version (not that there is a lot of deconstruction there, but still). Children's classics are still around because children still love them, because they have merit beyond their mere presentation of a story (if books were really that interchangeable literature would be a very bleak field indeed). Of course they're problematic, but any intelligent child will probably pick up on some of it regardless (I adored The Chronicles of Narnia as a child, but was instinctively bothered by parts, even if at the time I didn't quite understand why), and if they're presented with information and discussion of *why* they're problematic, that extra lesson will certainly sink in. It is possible to enjoy a work for itself and then go on to analyze it critically.