Content Analysis of Portrayals of Climate Change in Turkish Picturebooks

Carefully chosen picturebooks offer a developmentally appropriate medium for helping children understand even the most complex challenges. However, it may be difficult for teachers to find high-quality children's books for explaining multifaceted topics such as climate change. This study explores the contents of a set of picturebooks about climate change with consideration of both their literary and scientific aspects. Through content analysis, we examine nine picturebooks available in Turkish related to climate change. We address the quality of these picturebooks in terms of narrative elements such as characters, settings, narrative structures (i.e., initiating events, problems, and resolutions), language, illustrations, and the scientific accuracy of the contents. Looking at the examples of these Turkish picturebooks, we observe that narrative structures should be balanced in terms of appropriate places and times. Furthermore, scientific terms and explanations should be more accurate and child-friendly when dealing with complex topics such as climate change. Finally, we discuss the need for high-quality picturebooks that deal with climate change carefully.