Some Food for Thought (Before Breakfast)
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.”
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Ooh, thiiiis is an interesting discussion! I Have Thoughts so am interested in reading everyone else’s!