Just an anecdote, but adds to my general skepticism about kid lit as a way to directly inculcate values. I mean, I do it to, but it's very hard to control reader experience.
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Half the things I well-meaningly said to my kids when they were young ended up having the opposite effect on them as I thought they would, so it only makes sense that this would extend to books.
I don't remember the program, but I remember some mother figure nagging at their kid to wash behind their ears, and it was played for a joke that the mother was overly naggy. So I thought you weren't supposed to wash behind your ears for yeas as a kid.
I think this happens across all media types though. Plenty of anecdotes of teenage boys watching Fight Club and coming out of it saying "wow, Fight Club sounds cool." Or the classic "don't build the torment nexus" joke.
The message doesn't always land even when you'd think it obvious.
I don’t think the issue is with the books, it’s that our kids need us to help with the critical thinking bit. And that’s exactly what you did - engaged the kid in a conversation and found out what conclusions they drew.
Although now I'm thinking about a few years ago when successful people started describing their experiences with imposter syndrome, and my unhealthy reaction was "Jeez, I don't even deserve imposter syndrome, that's for people more successful than I am."
But for special-eye-directing-wires for young readers rather than travelling to the moon.
Maybe also a shock collar for when the *wrong* parts of people's brains are lighting up (what do you mean you're sympathising with the villain because he's *also* wearing a brain cage!).
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I figure the lesson really isn't "imparting important messages to kids doesn't work"
but more like "we must listen, not just talk/write to kids, 'cause it's impossible to know how any message will land."
The message doesn't always land even when you'd think it obvious.
This is why they now discourage having “bad kids” as characters, because kids emulate them
They just act like little assholes until you go block the show from Netflix
I’m at that age, they think a fart is the funniest thing they’ve ever seen, so just have more fart jokes and less jerkasses
Maybe also a shock collar for when the *wrong* parts of people's brains are lighting up (what do you mean you're sympathising with the villain because he's *also* wearing a brain cage!).