Translation of child books into Turkish: A case of Christine Nöstlinger

Children have characteristic features that are spesific and unique to themselves . Each of them have different word-views. They are little explorers who are very curious, creative and imaginative. Morever, they love to have fun and dream and also to be free. Parents, educators and experts put emphasis on introducing children firstly to the child books that are suitable for the principle of child appropriateness and that are well qualified in terms of their apprearance and content in order support children's cognitive and psycological development. After the inclusion of translated child books into the works on children's literature, studies on translated children's literature have started to be done. In this study, it is aimed to make a contribution for the area of children's literature translation by focusing on the characteristics of qualified books for children and the methods for translating them; and also by analyzing several translations of these books. In addition to this, the historical process of both children's literature and translations of children's literature and also approaches and strategies about translating literary texts, the problems and limitations that the translators generally face during the process of translation are all taken into the scape of the study. The criteria used in the critique of translation were mentioned. In the light of these points and criteria, 3 books of Christine Nöstlinger, famous German writer of child books, are used for the investigation of their translation into Turkish from German. Translations are analyzed in context and sentence by sentence for their appropriateness to the level of children and the question of whether the terms used in these translated books are suitable for the principle of child appropriateness or not is tried to be answered. Lastly, the importance of using statements proper to the principle of child appropriateness is emphasized and the points to be taken into consideration are also highlighted.