Abstract:

Nature is a source of experience for children. The child sees nature as an area of both amusement and exploration. This interest of the child has been the subject of children's literature targeting the child. It is effective in reaching out to the child to benefit from children's stories in order to appease the child to nature and to give him environmental awareness. In children's literature, nature is often handled or dealt with in the context of environmental education. The heroes are presented to the child by being equipped with the human behaviors that the child will be identified with. It is less common for children to take part in children's books with their own characteristics. In this research, it is aimed to determine the nature-child relationship and the dimensions of this relationship in the stories of children's literature products in which nature is the subject of its own features. For this purpose, fifty stories in thirty children's books were first read by the researcher and analyzed descriptively. Afterwards, the content-analysis of the nature-child relationship was coded through this analysis. In the coding process, expert opinion was taken. As a result of the research, it was seen that in the children's stories examined, there were fifty-six different interaction dimensions of nature for the child. Some of these dimensions: curiosity, fun, discovery, happiness, love, fear, compassion. In the stories examined, it was seen that nature was the most entertainment element. The child recognizes nature for the most fun and engages with it. The second most common element is the ownership. The child takes possession of the elements of nature to relate to him. While nature plays an active role in the child's emotions and behaviors with its own characteristics, it has been understood that the child affects nature in the sense of “protecting the environment“, “sacrifice and responsibility, mercy” for nature.

Keywords: