An analysis of pandemic themed children's books for early childhood in terms of content characteristics

The COVID-19 virus, which started to spread all over the world in December 2020, has seriously affected the emotional and psychological development of children. Spreading suddenly and rapidly,this virus has caused a lack of scientific knowledge of people. Children's picture books are one of the educational tools that positively support their social development and eliminate the lack of knowledge in their minds. The aim of this research is to examine the content features of the pandemic-themed children's books published online or in print for early childhood children in Turkey. For this purpose, a book review form was created by the researcher for books with a pandemic theme. The study group of the research consists of 38 illustrated children's books published online or in print with a pandemic theme. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis. The data were expressed with percentage and frequency analysis, and direct quotations were made from the examined documents. Considering the findings obtained in this study, it was seen that the content features of most of the pandemic-themed children's books for the early childhood period were prepared by considering the developmental characteristics of children in the early childhood period, while the majority of the books published online needed editing in terms of content features. In this respect, it is suggested that the books, whose content features aren't suitable, should be republished in cooperation with scientists working in the field of health and in a way that is more appropriate pedagogically;books containing themes such as pandemic, health and research on these books should increase. Also it is suggested that books containing themes such as pandemic, health and research on these books should increase.