An Evaluation of the International Children’s Books about Turkey and Turks

In this two-part study, children’s books contain information about Turkey and Turks were examined. In the first part focusing on the early English children’s books western images of Turks were explored. In the second part, the books about Turkey and stories set in Turkey published recently and available in public libraries to show how wide reading of books on one country can teach children much information about the cultures an people of the country, and build connections to people who might at first seem rather foreign to American schoolchildren were shared. These stories can be instrumental in expanding children’s cultural knowledge and helping develop intercultural understandings. Sometimes it can be enlightening to focus on reading books about just one country to get an in-depth view of the stories and lives of the people. As a result of the study it can be concluded that negative, religious and exotic concepts were found as common themes in the earlier books. Most of the books currently available in the libraries have limited qualifications for the international children's books.