THE VIRTUE OF FRIENDSHIP IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: PARENTS' REPRESENTATION

It is understood that the awakening of values is linked to the development of the child's moral judgment and that, besides the aspect of interaction, the reflection on certain values, by means of children's literature, can contribute to their expansion. Whereas the family is the first environment in which the child lives and that plays a key role in the development of its personality, this study aimed at investigating the representation of parents about the importance of children's literature in building moral values and analyze children's books from the concept originating from surveys about interpersonal relationships. 47 parents of first-grade elementary students in a private school participated. 10 children's books were used as analysis material and, for the gathering of data, two instruments were used: a) a questionnaire containing boxes for the identification of the students' parents, student name and title of the book chosen, and 5 questions referring to the message of the book, the child's comprehension of the message, its relationship with real life, the building of values; b) an observation script with concepts about interpersonal relationships for the analysis of the books. The results indicated that the books analyzed were predominant with happy and joyful moments, and friendship is considered to be important for the lives of the characters, whereas conflicts, competition and aggressiveness are easily circumvented. The parents indicated that they recognize the importance of children's literature in building friendships and we pointed out what their children valued in the stories' characters.