world_pictures

Books from
Turkey
Contact: Muhittin Gurbuz
gurbuz13@gmail.com
The co-ordination of the top ten picture books for Turkey was undertaken by
Muhittin Gurbuz. Initially, information about the project was sent to 12 major
publishers, the Turkish Publishers Association, the Writers Union of Turkey
and an author asking them to choose their top ten books. Unfortunately
the majority did not respond, although a list was received from Bitlis Public
Library. Then a search for the titles was carried out in bookshops and online in
order to look at them, to verify if they were eligible, and to check if they were
in stock. A list of 100 nominated picture books made up from mutiple voted
titles was drawn up. These were a combination of classics and interesting
contemporary authors and illustrators. An electronic voting form was sent
with the information to all librarians who work at university, public, and school
libraries. The form was also made available across Turkey in discussion-groups
and posted on the Internet via blogs and Facebook groups. Turkish children’s
classical books have been the most preferred by librarians. Two books written
by the same author (Behiç Ak) were choosen for the top ten list. One of the
books was eliminated and replaced with another book (Bahçıvan Köstebek ve
Uçan Karınca Kıvırcık), a prize winner in the 2010 Tudem Literature Awards called
“Write, Draw, Paint. Greeting to the Books!”. The final list consists of titles that
both met the IFLA criteria and got the largest number of votes. In addition, the
books included in the top ten list for Turkey were chosen for inclusion because
they feature Turkey and/or its diverse culture, and also universal values such as
friendship, love, family, etc. General information has also been included in the
reviews. The books are listed starting from the highest voted.
the world through picture books • books from turkey • 202