Messages in Children's Books

In the past two weeks of class, I have already learned so much about different things to look for or be aware of in children's books. We have spent a lot of time discussing implicit and explicit messages that our found in all different types of books and how there are many positive and negative messages that are being said in these books. Honestly, I never realized the amount of messages which are created in children's books until analyzing it now. I feel as though just spending this short amount of time analyzing different children's books has already made me feel so much more prepared for teaching in the future. I now feel as though I know what kinds of books send good messages versus bad messages and I can look to find good books in the future when I do become a teacher. It is imperative that we as future teachers are able to identify the specific details in children's books that contribute to the type of book we are reading. It is really interesting to be learning so much new information about books I remember reading as a child and now conveying what the books truly mean and how different a child's perception is from an adult's. Some of the obvious messages being sent to children is the idea of a mother or father like figure and a daughter or son figure which shows the idea "looking up to an elder" or the idea of "unconditional love"which both have been common themes among some of the books we have talked about in class. It is not suprising that many children's books relate these themes because many children grow up feeling loved unconditionally as well as looking up to their parents and they aspire to be just like their parents at young ages. These are the types of books that many children enjoy reading and are famous successful children's books today as well as in the past as well.