Resimli Çocuk Kitaplarının Nitelik Sorunsalı ve Çocuğun Sanat Eğitimi Sürecindeki Yeri: “Delioğlu’nun Resimlediği Yapıtlar Üzerine Bir İnceleme”

Problem Statement: It is an important issue that pre-school aged children cannot interact with books as necessary as possible in Turkey. In addition, the quality and the selection of illustrated books presented to children in their pre-school period is another important aspect of this problem. However, not enough academic research has been conducted in this field. Focusing on this topic of discussion, evaluating the approaches towards the quality of illustrated children’s books which has a great contribution in the development of aesthetical sensibility and in the realization of reading culture is of great significance, as well as making detections within a scientific framework. Purpose of the Study: The aim of this study is to discuss the problem of quality in illustrated children’s books and the place of these books in the process of children’s art education. For this reason, the following five books which were illustrated by Mustafa Delioğlu have been analyzed: “Öğretmenin Sihirli Şapkası” (Teacher’s Magic Hat), “Dedemin Sihirli Dolabı” (My Grandpa’s Magical Closet), “Ninemin Arkadaşı (My Grandma’s Friend)”, and “Ninemle Hayvanat Bahçesinde” (In the Zoo with my Grandma), and “Peynirli Börek” (Pastry with Cheese). Method(s): In this research, while referring to the problematic of quality in illustrated children’s books and the place of these books in the process of children’s art education, various views in the disciplines of children’s literature, art philosophy and art education have also been presented. This research is based on the survey model, which aims to describe a present phenomenon as it exists (Karasar, 1998). Furthermore, the books “Öğretmenin Sihirli Şapkası” (Teacher’s Magic Hat), “Dedemin Sihirli Dolabı” (My Grandpa’s Magical Closet), “Ninemin Arkadaşı” ( My Grandma’s Friend), “Ninemle Hayvanat Bahçesinde” (In the Zoo with my Grandma), and “Peynirli Börek” (Pastry with Cheese), which were all illustrated by Mustafa Delioğlu, were analyzed within the extent of questions which Sever (2007) developed in the teaching of children’s literature for examining the quality of pictures, with the method of “descriptive analysis”. Findings and Discussions: The interaction of children with illustrated children’s books has a great role in deriving creativity in children, in the formation of artistic and fictive awareness and in enabling children’s aesthetic perception, visual literacy and intellectual and cultural improvement. Keeping in mind that starting with early childhood, the child gains his or her first impressions and instruction related to visual arts from such books; the importance of child’s encounter with the illustrated children’s books prepared with the visual incentives of quality could be obviously understood. While the qualities in illustrated children’s book are examined, one should not consider the visual art elements (such as dots, lines, spots, texture, color, space, light and shade), artistic arrangement principles (such as balance, emphasis, movement, change, calibration, ratio and proportion) functioning to arrange the elements mentioned above, and aesthetic values as the main factors. In conjunction with all these, the function of pictures in narration, their contribution to the holism anticipated by the understanding of education through art, to the ways of developing an intellectual sense and an emotional bond with the book should be taken into consideration. Conclusions and Recommendations: As a result, children’s book illustrations completed with artistic sensibility is the easiest and the most effective way of art education in the beginning period of early childhood. The books illustrated by Mustafa Delioğlu, which are examined in this research, are seen as having the quality to succeed in introducing to the child to their own reality, to store an aesthetic value to offer an important deal in the child’s visual art education and creativity, and most importantly to arouse children’s artistic and intellectual awareness.