Some Food for Thought (Before Breakfast)

h1 November 18th, 2020 by jules


Over at Calling Caldecott today, Jonathan Hunt and Elisa Gall return for their “what the hell/why the hell” series to ask: What the hell is didactic intent anyway?

The Caldecott criteria state the award is “not for didactic intent”—not to mention we librarians in library school are taught that message-driven books are not to be respected as quality literature—yet there have been a handful of books in recent years that are affirmations of identity (including racial identity) and self-worth and books with social justice messages and/or characters with minoritized identities. These books often get labelled as didactic by librarians, but Jonathan and Elisa ask: Who is getting centered (and not centered) in these conversations? Didactic for whom? “Our culture, media, and society” Jonathan writes, “constantly send me messages of affirmation and a reader who does not get these messages would have different reading needs than mine.”

Head here to join the conversation.





One comment to “Some Food for Thought (Before Breakfast)”

  1. Ooh, thiiiis is an interesting discussion! I Have Thoughts so am interested in reading everyone else’s!


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