A Study on Critical Thinking Skills and Competencies in Children’s Literature: The Case of The Child Who Was Afraid of Books

This study examines Susanna Tamaro’s The Child Who Was Afraid of Books in terms of critical thinking skills and competencies within the context of children’s literature. Critical thinking is considered a developmental process that enables children to organize their thoughts, question assumptions, evaluate situations, and make reasoned decisions. Therefore, literary texts addressed to children play an important role in supporting this mode of thinking. The study was designed as qualitative research. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was employed, and the data obtained from the text were analysed through descriptive analysis. The findings indicate that the work frequently includes the critical thinking skills of analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and inference. These skills are reflected through the protagonist’s inner questioning, conflicts with authority, and individual decision-making processes. In addition, among the critical thinking competencies, formulating questions, analysing problems, and interacting with others were identified as prominent. Overall, the findings suggest that The Child Who Was Afraid of Books has the potential to contribute to the development of children’s critical thinking and may be regarded as a valuable example of children’s literature.