Home has been recognized as one of the vital elements of human beings since the beginning of history. The house metaphor used in children's picture books is an image that reflects the inner world of the child. Subconsciously defined as a safe space, home protects the child from all external threats. Home is the place where the child spends all his/her vital activities and is envisioned as the place to which he/she returns at the end. In this study, firstly, a literature review on the history of illustrated children's books is conducted and the semiotics method is explained. Then, the home metaphor used in the children's picture books “Zola's Elephant”, “The Void”, “When Sadness Knocks on Your Door”, in which the home metaphor is treated as a safe space, is analyzed through the semiotics method. Literature review and Roland Barthes' semiotic analysis method are used in the research. The reason for selecting the samples for the research is that the common point of the stories in “When Sadness Knocks at Your Door”, “The Void” and “Zola's Elephant” is the child and the metaphor of home as a safe space contains common contexts. In this framework, while all of the main characters in the aforementioned books are in the image of home at the beginning of their stories, the characters who experience transformation in the developmental parts of the story leave their homes and at the end of their stories, they return to their homes where they feel more peaceful, where their self-confidence is strengthened and where they have metaphorically rebuilt as a safe space. In this return, home images in the books analyzed in this study strengthen the meaning of “safe space” and at the same time, it is seen as the place where the characters make a new beginning by experiencing a metamorphosis at the end of their stories. As a result of the research, the teachings gained as a result of the events experienced in real life, as well as in the stories experienced by the characters in the mentioned children's picture books, play an active role in shaping the future of the child. It is observed that the metaphor of home is a safe space and a rich image that takes place in the child's growth process, providing protection and feeling safe when necessary, a sense of belonging, family and the child's own unique world that has to be abandoned and rebuilt, and endows that world with various meanings.

Illustrated Children's Book, Illustration, Home, Metaphor, Semiotics, Roland Barthes