A comparative analysis of Caldecott award-winning books and popular turkish picture books

Children's books are one of the most important products in determining the cultural level of a country. Because children's books are not only products that enable children to have fun, but also works of art in their own right. Just like toys that enter their lives from an early age, they will support all their developmental areas and will develop skills such as mental ability, thinking, perception, imagination, imagination, creativity and aesthetics, and will shape their lives. In this context, children who encounter quality picture books at an early age will form the adults of the future who take part in the world of universal culture and also contribute to social development. In this research, a comparative analysis was made of the similarities and differences between the popular picture Turkish children's books with the books that received the best children's book illustrator award every year in the United States (the award is named after the 19th century painter and book illustrator Randolp Caldecott) in terms of formal features and illustration techniques. In children's literature, it was emphasized that picture and stylistic features are as important as text, and the books belonging to different cultures were examined. For this purpose, 10 of the children's picture books that received the Caldecott award in different years and 10 popular Turkish children's picture books were examined comparatively. While the analysis is analyzed within the framework of certain dimensions by reviewing the printed texts, the research is a document analysis study and patterned by adopting the qualitative method. In this research, by presenting qualified examples from both contemporary Turkish children's literature and international children's literature, providing different perspectives in terms of the formal and illustrative characteristics of children's literature. In addition, this research is the first in the Turkish literature, and it is thought that it will make a great contribution to children's literature research by drawing attention to the areas that need to be developed in Turkish children's picture books with the findings obtained.