Analysis of Humor Elements in Illustrated Story Books for Children

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• preschool,humor,children

Çocuklar için Yazılmış Resimli Öykü Kitaplarında Yer Alan Mizahi Ögelerin İncelenmesi

Abstract

Çocukların mutlu olmasını sağlayan kaynaklardan biri, yaşamlarında her yaş döneminde yer alması gereken resimli öykü kitaplarıdır. Resimli öykü kitapları sayısız yararlarının yanı sıra, çocukların eğlenmesi ve yaşamlarına mizahı katmaya başlamalarını sağlamak için de pek çok fırsat sunmaktadır. Bu nedenle çocuk kitaplarının mizahi ögeleri kapsama durumu çocukların hem mutlu olmaları hem de mizahı kullanma becerilerinin gelişimi açısından önemli görülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, üç-altı yaş çocuklar için yazılmış olan resimli öykü kitaplarının iç ve dış yapı özelliklerinde yer alan mizahi ögelerin belirlenmesi ve incelenmesidir. İnceleme kapsamına alınan öykü kitapları; kapak, görseller, öykü, metin-diyaloglar ve kahramanların özellikleri gibi başlıklarda mizahi ögeleri içermesi bakımından değerlendirilmiştir. Veriler araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen bir form kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Bu form geliştirilirken mizah alanyazını gözden geçirilmiştir. Geliştirilen form, erken çocukluk gelişimi ve çocuk edebiyatı alanlarında uzman olan üç akademisyen tarafından değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma kapsamında 80 resimli öykü kitabı içerik analizi tekniği ile değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuçlar incelendiğinde, en sık karşılaşılan mizahi öge olasılık dışı (f=228) olma durumudur. Bu ögeyi uyumsuzluk (f=136), abartma (f=128) ve sürpriz (f=66) olma durumu izlemektedir. Ebeveynler ve öğretmenlerin yapması gereken, kitapların iç ve dış özelliklerini dikkatlice incelemektir. Öyküler baştan sona okunmalı, temaların çocuklar için doğru seviyede aktarılıp aktarılmadığı ve görsellerin bu temaları destekleyici olup olmadığı gözden geçirilmelidir. Gülmek ve eğlenmek, dolayısıyla yetişkinlerin anlayışından farklı içerikte de olsa mizah, çocukların yaşamında oldukça yer kaplayan ve zihinlerini geliştiren bir araçtır. Çocuklarda doğal olarak var olan bu unsurları gerek kitaplardaki öykü ve görsellerle gerekse de oyunlarla desteklemek, pek çok bilgiyi çocuklara kazandırmanın yanı sıra çeşitli yaşamsal becerilerin edinilmesi için de gerekli görülmektedir. 

Keywords

• okulöncesi,mizah,çocuklar

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