\nOver at Calling Caldecott today, Jonathan Hunt and Elisa Gall return for their \u201cwhat the hell\/why the hell\u201d series to ask: What the hell is didactic intent anyway? <\/p>\n
\nOver at Calling Caldecott today, Jonathan Hunt and Elisa Gall return for their \u201cwhat the hell\/why the hell\u201d series to ask: What the hell is didactic intent anyway? <\/p>\n
The Caldecott criteria state the award is \u201cnot for didactic intent\u201d\u2014not to mention we librarians in library school are taught that message-driven books are not to be respected as quality literature\u2014yet 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? \u201cOur culture, media, and society\u201d Jonathan writes, \u201cconstantly send me messages of affirmation and a reader who does not get these messages would have different reading needs than mine.\u201d <\/p>\n