A review on ecocriticism in children's books

Since his beginning of existence, man has seen himself as the owner, not a part of nature. However, he benefited from the possibilities of nature and provided the progression of his life thanks to nature. In the last century, this idea has become more widespread and with the crowded human population, both uncontrollable buildings and pollution have increased considerably. In this circumstances environmental problems have arisen and these problems have gradually become inevitable. Today, environmental problems are no longer only the problem of ecologists. It also concerns a wide mass of the society. Literature is one of the greatest tool that appeal to a wide audience of society. Environmental awareness can be created in individuals through literary texts. The environmentalist criticism theory, which accepts human and nature as a whole by rejecting the idea of seeing oneself as the owner of nature, is an approach that can be used in this sense. In this study, in order to reveal the place of environmental criticism in children's books, the literature on environmental criticism and children's literature is scanned and the basic criteria that should be included in children's books is determined, and in this context, the books are examined and evaluated. The data of the research conducted with the general survey model, which is one of the qualitative research methods, is collected by document analysis. The study group consists of eight books selected by the researcher from among the 5th,6th,7th,8th grades level of children's books written on the theme of nature and the universe (Mystery of Alparma,Children of Altınçayır Valley,Outer World Trip,What's Happening in the Hidden Forest?,Nice Granny's Olive,Freedom to the Ocean,Common Spirit,The Last Flower).These eight children's books in the study group are examined in detail according to the features that should be found in children's books within the context of ecocriticism theory determined by the researcher. These characteristics are grouped under seven headings, namely identification, love of nature, nature consciousness, the way nature is reflected, the modeled self, the use of language, aesthetic sensitivity and imagination in order to create criteria for the examination. Each title is considered as a sub-category and the information obtained from the books, examined according to these titles, is presented with content analysis. As a result; It is seen that all of the books examined, except one book (Freedom to the Ocean), include child characters which are suitable for the reader to make identification of himself with. Love of nature is included in all of the books examined and it is aimed to give children an awareness of nature. In terms of the modeled self, it has been observed that environmentalist characters who do not keep silent in the face of damages to nature and struggle with unconscious and bad-spirited people are highlighted in all books. In terms of language use, it is observed that a clear and understandable language is preferred in all of the books that is suitable for the age level of children. Also it has been observed that all the books except for three books (Mystery of Almarpa, Children of Altınçayır Valley, Common Spirit) include visuals that enable children to gain artistic sensitivity in terms of gaining aesthetic sensitivity and imagination.