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• THE REPRESENTATION OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS IN CONTEMPORARY CHILDREN’S BOOKS – USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL, SIMI AND THE MESSY LETTERS, AND CSONGOR MIHÁLYI AND THE TIME PLASTICINE

  67-82

  Hermina Gesztelyi

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  68

  The present study focuses on contemporary children's books that reflect some form of special educational need. Since recently there has been an increase in the number of books on topic available in the children's book market, with publishing series, issuing the difficult life situations and on the presentation of ’otherness’, including learning disabilities, it is of great importance to take a glance at these publications. In this essay, my aim is to focus on how the texts are written and the language of representation. In particular, I will pay attention to the illustrations, which make a crucial part of the experience of reception and interpretation. With this analysis, my aim is to show how concretely or abstractly a particular educational need can be represented, whether it reinforces stereotypes or not, and how this may impact the connection to the phenomenon. The analysis of the texts also provides an opportunity to validate different attitudes, behaviours, and perspectives, and can thus contribute to sensitisation. The presentation of specific educational needs, with its positive or negative connotations, and the phenomenon of positive discrimination, are closely linked to methodological possibilities and practical implications of interpreting the texts. Here it is worthcalling attention to the concepts of helpful books, sensitisation and prevention, the relationship between these terms and literature, and reflecting on the close connection of the aesthetically shaped texts to these problems. Accordingly, the paper will first aim to explore the concept of special educational needs, then it will present its types to point out the difficulties of definition, the different approaches, and to define its own terminology. Similarly, this paper will take into account the terminology of literary studies and the perspectives relevant to this thesis. This will be followed by the analyses of the three preselected volumes which on the one hand ask whether the books are appropriate for the age group they are aimed at, while, on the other hand, they concern the possible directions for future methodological inquiries. Finally, the conclusion part summerises the results of the study and the controversies surrounding the presentation of the subject in children's books.