diff --git a/sci b/sci
index 674897d4..eb322b3b 160000
--- a/sci
+++ b/sci
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 674897d4378049126bbd24ad4d537df9f619e9ea
+Subproject commit eb322b3b68312f4de109153ec1719042267320ac
diff --git a/src/babashka/impl/clojure/core.clj b/src/babashka/impl/clojure/core.clj
index e970cf77..ca10a0b2 100644
--- a/src/babashka/impl/clojure/core.clj
+++ b/src/babashka/impl/clojure/core.clj
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
             [clojure.core :as c]
             [clojure.string :as str]
             [sci.core :as sci]
-            [sci.impl.namespaces :refer [copy-core-var core-var macrofy]]
+            [sci.impl.namespaces :refer [copy-core-var new-var macrofy]]
             [sci.impl.parser :as parser]
             [sci.impl.utils :refer [clojure-core-ns]]
             [sci.impl.vars :as vars]))
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@
    '*data-readers* data-readers
    'default-data-readers (copy-core-var default-data-readers)
    'xml-seq (copy-core-var xml-seq)
-   'read+string (core-var 'read+string (fn [& args]
+   'read+string (new-var 'read+string (fn [& args]
                   (apply read+string @common/ctx args)))
    '*command-line-args* command-line-args
    '*warn-on-reflection* warn-on-reflection
diff --git a/src/babashka/main.clj b/src/babashka/main.clj
index ba8b10a9..5c9c261d 100644
--- a/src/babashka/main.clj
+++ b/src/babashka/main.clj
@@ -867,7 +867,7 @@ Use bb run --help to show this help output.
                   :namespaces (-> namespaces
                                   (assoc 'clojure.core
                                          (assoc core-extras
-                                                'load-file (sci-namespaces/core-var 'load-file load-file*))))
+                                                'load-file (sci-namespaces/new-var 'load-file load-file*))))
                   :env env
                   :features #{:bb :clj}
                   :classes @classes/class-map