Examination of TUDEM Literature Award-Winning children's novels in terms of sensitivity education

Children's literature is a literature that is put forward for children, in which the interests and needs of children are kept at the forefront, life is looked at through the eyes of children. Unlike adult literature, this type of literature, which requires careful consideration of the characteristics of each age group, aims to educate individuals who think, question, have aesthetic taste, and can adapt to society. Nowadays, with the coming to the forefront of individuality, the fact that the consciousness of society has been lost has made it necessary for people to realize what is happening outside of themselves. For this reason, sensitivity training, which aims to be aware of what is happening around, has become an important issue. It is thought that the sensitivity education that is desired to be given to individuals starting from an early age can be gained through children's literature works. Based on this idea, the purpose of this research is to examine the children's novels selected as the first by the selection committee at the Tudem Literary Awards in terms of sensitivity education. In the research, 7 children's novels that have received the first prize in these awards given since 2003 were examined. A qualitative research design was used in the research and the data were collected using the document review method. Content analysis was carried out by taking into account the categories created by Aslan (2016), Alemdar and Süngü (2017), Karakuş Tayşi (2019) in determining and grouping the sensitivity areas. The identified 30 sensitivity areas have been identified in novels at different levels. Most often in the works there are topics related to family members, areas of sensitivity to language and nature. In addition, topics related to areas of sensitivity to friendship, animals, science, health, assistance, death, peace, reading culture are also frequently included. Based on the results of the research, it is thought that the novels examined will play a role in giving children sensitivity on many issues. Keywords: Sensibility, Tudem, children's literature, novel, sensibility education.