Fiction Evaluation Form

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

Your Name: Lizeth Reyes  Book Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No
Good, Very Bad Day: Special Limited Edition
Author: Judith Viorist Illustrator: Ray Cruz

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Humor, School and family picture book

Publisher/Year: Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Special, Limited edition, 2009

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 word choices in the story are appropriate for young children. They are simple, but some words
are longer, giving a challenge for them to read. Dialogue was not a main factor in the book, because
the text consisted of Alexander's emotions. The rhythm was calm, because Alexander started his day
from when he woke up and ended the night back to his bed. He went step by step of his day. Rhyming
was not included in this story, and the sentence length was longer than other stories I have read for
children. For example, "At breakfast Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal
box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my
breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal." Something I learned from this story is that
everybody goes through a bad day, and that all we want to do is scream or blame it on others, we
need to calm down and relax for a bit, and then start again.
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?
The main character in the story is Alexander. He is thinking that everybody is against him. He
feels stressed that nothing is going his way, while his friends are having a good day. For
example, he told the car driver that he is squished in the back of the car, but she did not listen
to him. The other children were comfortable in the ride, and did not complain. The reader can
relate a lot to the character because everybody feels stressed that nothing is going their way,
and that it feels like a bad day that never ends. The reader will feel sympathy towards
Alexander because he is narrating his day and how he wishes to move somewhere else like
Australia, so he can have a good day. The supporting characters are his friends, teacher, and
his mother.
1. PLOT: summarize the major events in the story-
Alexander wakes up to gum on his hair and he already senses that it will be a bad day. When he is
eating breakfast, his friends found a prize inside their cereal box, except Alexander. His car ride was
not comfortable, and his teacher was acknowledging the negative things Alexander did. His friend is
choosing other people to be his best friend leaving Alexander third. After school, his day just got
worse and he could not do anything to stop his bad luck. At night, his mom came to his bed and
explained to him that bad days happen and that they happen to other people, even in Australia.
2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book.
 THEME- What is the story’s theme/message?
Setting: Alexander's house, school, city streets were the places that were used to tell the story during
the day.
Theme: The theme of the story is that bad days happen to anybody.
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)?
The type of style that the two page spread has is realism.
Media choices (paints, oils watercolors, pencil, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk ) :
The media choices that were selected to create the drawings are: pen, pencil, and chalk.
Give examples and describe how the following visual elements are used in the illustrations :
Line: In the illustrations in the breakfast table, the lines are very thin. They are solid lines are drawn diagonally, horizontal,
and vertical.
Shapes: Although the shapes look simple showing the objects, the items in the table can easily camouflage with the cereal
box or the bowl.
Color: Everything is black and white, except for Alexander. His hair color is red, shirt is dark green, and skin is light tan. In
every page, everything is all black and white, while he is the only one who does not have a splash of grey nor dark colors.
Texture: The texture in the illustrations are rough. A lot of dark shadows are visible in every character and object in the
drawings. The texture looks like pieces if fabric, for example, cross-hatching was used to distinguish between the chair and
Alexander.
Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show that text does not
explain?
Illustration and text are combined to tell us how Alexander spends his day, and how it was a horrible
day for him. He says it is a bad day, but the illustrations show it. With the illustrations, they show how
Alexander reacts to everything and how he is unhappy reflecting on his narrating.
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?
The text is on top of the illustration, and there are no borders. Around the text and page, it is
surrounded with white/blank space. Both pages are designed differently. The right page is a new
scene and new illustration.
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 age: 2 to 7 years
Explain the cognitive development from the stage:
Rapid development on knowing how to distinguish the differences between good, bad, friend, and
sharing. Start to realize there are more people and objects than what they can see.
Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage:
Alexander said that his friend was choosing other people before him, and that he saw that as bad. He
noticed all the bad things during his day, and nothing good was coming out of it.

Emotional DEVELOPMENT
Identify the Age: 3-6 Years
Explain the emotional development for the age:
Language is developing and is helping to improve the emotional skills. Sympathy will develop with
emotions when language, cognitive, and behavior help create self-regulation.
Using examples from the book, explain how the book fits the emotional development of the age:
When Alexander noticed that his invisible drawing was not praised by the teacher, he felt bad and his
feelings towards the teacher was not good. He felt that the teacher was picking on him while singing,
and when he was counting. He felt bad for himself for having a terrible day.
2. Overall Rating of the book (3 highest - 1 lowest) 3
Comments: (Support your overall rating)
Alexnder talks about real life issues young children face. His friends are choosing other people.
Everybody has bad days and he showed it in a way that children can understand that bad days are
temporarily. I liked that Alexander explained his day, but he also compared it to others around him
to show that his day was actually bad. There may not be colors splashing out of the page, but
Alexander's feelings reflected on the dark shades and grey areas of the illustration to represent his
sadness.