The books I chose to reflect the Cat in the Hat are the Junie B. Jones books written by Barbara Parks. I chose this character because she is constantly getting into trouble and making the adults in her stories crazy. Junie is constantly causing mischief of one kind or another without even realizing she is doing so or that she has done anything wrong. I think the Junie B. Jones books appeal to children because they can relate to her. They understand the way she thinks and why she does what she does. If I ask my students, “Why would Junie do that?” they can always explain it to me and explain why it is wrong.

The Lorax is didactic because of the lesson it teaches about how we must care for our environment. It is irresponsible to destroy our planet just to turn a profit. Are didactic children’s books published today? While searching for this answer, I have come to the conclusion that no…not so much. I believe this is because of the continually rising publication of quality multicultural children’s books. It seems that didactic children’s literature of the past was predictable and only focused on the dominant societal race. Minorities were usually not portrayed in these books and if they were, the portrayal was negative. Now that publishers are addressing this problem, didactic literature has fallen back or been rewritten to reflect our multicultural society.