The Values in Literary Children’s Books at the 2nd Grade Level*

Abstract

Families, educational institutions and any kind of educational materials share important duties in raising individuals who adopt and practice national and universal values. One of these educational materials undoubtedly are children’s books which have literary quality.The topics, characters and messages in children’s book are of critical importance with regard to raising individuals who adopt the values reflected in the goals of the Turkish National Education system. In this sense, the aim of this study is to describe the personal and social values dealt with in primary 2^nd grade children’s books.The study made use of the document analysis method which is one of the qualitative research models. The study population included literary children’s books of primary school 2^nd grade reading level. The study sample consisted of totally 155 children’s books which were being sold in bookstores in the city center where the study was conducted. All of the books were in Turkish while some of them were by Turkish writers and were written by foreign authors and translated into Turkish. These books were selected randomly. A “Values Check List” was developed by the researcher and used as the data collection instrument of the study.The study results show that 2^nd grade students mostly liked the children’s books which included the personal values such as “love, goodness, courage, responsibility, respect, animal love and diligence,” and social values such as “friendship, helpfulness, the unity of family, cooperation and fellowship.” The least or never included personal values in the children’s books were “fairness, fidelity, humbleness, prudence, religiousness and cleanliness while the least mentioned social values were “peace and patriotism.”

Keywords: Value, values education, children’s books, primary school