MetaTOC stay on top of your field, easily

Meeting Characters in Caldecotts: What Does This Mean for Today's Readers?

, ,

The Reading Teacher

Published online on

Abstract

We examined representations of main characters in Caldecott Award winner and honor books over the past 25 years. Each book containing a human main character was coded for the following features: culture/ethnicity, gender, age, place where character lives, time period in which the character lives, disability, religion, socioeconomic status, and language usage. Although we found some promising changes in representation across the decades, overall the main characters in contemporary Caldecott books are predominantly White and show minimal diversity in terms of SES, disability, religion, or language usage. We use the metaphor of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors to reflect on what appears to be a gulf between the students in today's schools that are becoming increasingly diverse and the characters they meet in Caldecott books.