Research Information System
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND FUTURE-EGITIM VE GELECEK DERGISI, no.11, pp.15-27, 2017 (ESCI)
One of the resources that make children happy are illustrated story books, which should be a part of their life in all stages of childhood. In addition to many other benefits, illustrated story books provide children with the opportunity to have fun and start integrating humor into their lives. That is why the inclusion of humor elements in children's books are important in that they make children happy and contribute to the development of skill of humor use. The aim of this study is to identify and examine humor elements in internal and external structure of illustrated story books for children aged between three to six. For this purpose, it's investigated in selected story books whether humor elements were used in book cover, pictures, texts-dialogues and characters. Data were collected using a form that was developed by the researcher. Humor literature was reviewed while preparing this form. The form was evaluated by three academics whom were experts in early childhood education and child literature. A total of 80 illustrated story books were examined. Books were analyzed by the content analysis technique. Results indicates that the most common humor element in story books as a whole was absurdity (f=228). This element was followed by incongruity (f=136), exaggeration (f=128) and surprise (f=66). Parents and teachers are required to examine closely any external and internal information about the book. They have to read the whole story and decide whether the themes are suitable for children and whether illustrations support these themes. Making children have fun and laugh, humor is a tool that has a great place in children's lives and contribute to the development of their mind, although the content of humor for children and adults may be different. Supporting these natural tendencies of children namely, having fun and laughing - by stories and illustrations in books and plays will allow them to acquire a lot of information and develop various life skills.