Fiction Evaluation Form

(Picture Books, Folklore, Modern Fantasy, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Historical

Fiction, Multicultural Books)

Your Name: Jennifer Lopez Romero Book Title: Tom Goes to Kindergarten
Author: Margaret Wild Illustrator: David Ledge
Genre: Modern Fantasy Publisher/Year: Albert Whitman and company, 2000

EVALUATE THE BOOK USING THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS

STYLE and Language: Using examples from the book, explain the following: word choices,
dialogue, rhythm, rhyme and sentence length. Also, explain unexpected insights or
interesting information the reader learns from the story. Give examples.
 The author uses a combination of long and short sentences and an easy vocabulary that
children can understand.
CHARACTER – With examples from the book give the following: Who is the main
character? Explain the character’s personality traits.
How can the reader relate to the character, become involved in the story?
Who are the supporting characters?
 Tom
 Mr. and Mrs. Panda (his father and mother).
 Baby
 Mrs. Polar Bear
1. PLOT: summarize the major events in the story-

 Everyday Tom, his mother and baby went past kindergarten on their morning walk. His
mother told him that soon will be and Tom respond yes. When they got home, Tom
wanted his mother to be an astronaut or a princess or a googly monster. But first she has
laundry to hang up, plants to water and dishes to wash. When his father came home from
work, Tom jumped on his father first had to take out the recycling bin, cook dinner and
iron some shirts, so Tom play with baby. At long last, one morning it was time for Tom to
start kindergarten, he was very excited. The whole family went with him to kindergarten.
Mrs. Polar bear was waiting for him, she shows Tom the classroom, he made two new
friends. Then he hugged and kissed his family. “I’ll come get you later” said his mother,
suddenly, Tom did not want them to leave. He grabs his parents’ leg and did not let them
go, the teacher let them to stay for that day. His family stay, they played in the sandbox,
dress-up corner, painted a picture, listen to story and sang. In the afternoon, when they got
home after dinner and turned the dinning table into a castle, Tom and his mother love
kindergarten’s next day at kindergarten Tom’s parents did not want to go, he skipped
away to see what Mrs. Polar bear was doing, his family skipped after him. “we are going
to make sailor hats today” said Mrs. Polar bear, yes said Tom and his family, they all
hurried to the dress-up corner. “don’t you have to go to work” asked Mrs. Polar bear,”um,
well, er” said Tom’s father, tom’s mother went home and his father went to work. Tom’s
mother and baby made a ship and his father close the window and door at the office and
 made himself a sailor hat, his father hurried home to find our what tom had done at
kindergarten.
2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book.
THEME- What is the story’s theme/message?

Setting: It takes place in tom’s house and at tom’s school.

Theme: you can have the best time in a kindergarten classroom.
ILLUSTRATION –Analyze the illustrations for the book you selected (see Chapter 4) with
the categories below:
Choose a 2-page spread in the book to answer the following:
What Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)?
Media choices (paints, oils watercolors, pencil, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk) :
Give examples and describe how the following visual elements are used in the illustrations:
Line: Straight and curve lines for the bed, also uses horizontals and vertical lines.
Shapes: Circles for the clock and lamp and eyes, rectangles for books and the bed, triangles for
the teeth.
Color: Blue, brown, black, white, yellow, red, orange, gray, pink, green.
Texture: It uses a soft texture fir the furniture and a little bit of rough texture for the animals.
Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show
that text does not explain?
 The text explain how it was time for tom to go to kindergarten and how they parents took
him to the school. The illustration show how tom is excited to go to school and how he is
surprised when he meets her teacher.
Page design: Summarize the following: placement of illustrations and text; the use of
borders and white/dark space; are both pages designed the same or differently?
 Both pages have white borders, it uses white space where the text is place, in page the text
is place on the top and in the other page is place in the bottom.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT THEORIES – CHOOSE 2 of theories below and evaluate the
book according to the developmental theories. (How the book fits the developmental stage
and age?)

PIAGET-COGNITIVE-INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage: Preoperational and the ag: 2 to 7___

Explain the cognitive development from the stage:

 Children begin to think of objects and people outside of their immediate environment.
Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage:
 Children can talk about the activities that the animals do on the story and discuss if that
happened in the real world or is just imaginary.
 Discuss if they have every see any of those animals.
ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage: Industry versus Inferiority __ and the age: School age_________________
Explain the social development for this stage:
 Have the opportunities to develop skills and learn information.
Give examples from the book that support the social development of this stage:
 The children can connect the information with their personal experiences.
  discuss the different activities that they story list and compare them with the activities that
they do in the classroom.

2. Overall Rating of the book (3 highest - 1 lowest) 1 2 3

Comments: (Support your overall rating)
 It uses different words and a lot of illustrations; the children can connect the story with
their personal experiences.