A review of rewritten children's books

Rewriting involves the reinterpretation of a classic text through the lens of a new author, or in other words, expressing the existing text while preserving its core meaning. In recent years, the rewriting method has facilitated the re-examination of classic works based on various approaches, including evolving perspectives, pedagogical trends, the child's place within the family, and the understanding of social equality. Rewritten children's books have found their place within the educational system as a necessity of the modern age, becoming a significant subject of study. This thesis investigates rewritten world and Turkish classics by local authors within the realm of children's literature. Conducted as a qualitative case study, the research involved a field scan that yielded a list of 140 books. From this list, 20 books were selected as the study group using a disproportionate stratified sampling method. Data were collected through document analysis and analyzed using descriptive analysis. Criteria for essential elements in rewritten children's books were established under the headings of form and genre changes, content changes, and educational suitability for children. Under the heading of content changes, four sub-headings were included: removal of undesirable elements, modification of narrator-language and stylistic features, alteration of character traits of heroes and addition of new heroes, and modification of messages. As a result, within the context of the 20 works examined from world classics rewritten by local authors in children's literature, the most frequently featured books were Troy, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and The Bremen Town Musicians. In Turkish classics, the most prominent were Dede Korkut, Keloğlan, Şahmeran, Karagöz, and Hacivat. It was concluded that story, poetry, and story-poetry forms were predominantly preferred in terms of form and genre changes in both world and Turkish classics. Regarding content changes, the study found the removal of undesirable elements in 11 works, modification of narrator-language and stylistic features in 14 works, alteration of character traits in 8 works, addition of new characters to the plot in 10 works, and modification of messages in 11 works. It was determined that world classics underwent more changes than Turkish classics under the content change heading. From an educational perspective, nearly all of the works (19 out of 20) were found to be suitable.