Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: ​Montserrat Navarro

Book Title: ​Just Saving My Money

Author: ​Mercer Mayer

Genre: ​Fiction

Illustrator: ​Mercer Mayer

Publisher/Year:​ June 22, 2010 / HarperCollins

Evaluate the Book for the following elements

Style and Language:​ Using examples for the book, explain the following:
Word choices, dialogue, rhythm, rhyme and sentence length. Share
unexpected insights or interesting information the reader learns from this
story. (5 points)

Word Choice: ​Empty​ the dishwasher- put the dishes where they belong.
Pour​ my money- place money in the machine to count it.

Dialogue: “You need to save more money for a skateboard.” Dad says. I
say, “I will do chores and earn lots of money.” - This dialogue represents
the problem and solution fo​r ​the book. “Mom!” - Suggests the main
character needs help.

No rhythm. Sentence Length: 1-2 sentences

Character:​ With examples from the book, provide the following- (5 points)

Who is the main character?

How can the reader relate to the character?

Who are the supporting characters?

The Little Critter is the ​main character​ who encounters the problem and
solution.

The reader can relate to Little Critter because they don’t have jobs and
most likely can relate to doing chores and their parents helping them save
money.

The supporting characters are mom because the Little Critter asks her for
help and Dad because he gives him advice on saving money.

Plot:​ Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)

Little Critter presents a problem where he wants a new skateboard. Dad

suggests he needs to save money to buy one. Little Critter says he’ll earn
money by doing chores until he has saved enough money for a new
skateboard. In the end, he had enough money and bought himself a new
toy.
Setting​: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

Theme:​ What is the main message of this book? (2 points)

The book takes place at home in the morning/afternoon.

The theme of this book is to save money.

Illustration​: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories

Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon

art)? (2 points)

Naive and cartoon art.

Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons,

acrylic, chalk): (2 points)

Pen and acrylic

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in
the illustrations: (3)

Line: ​Hair, tree bark, skateboard scratches, pant pockets

Shapes: ​‘U’ shape for leaves, circles for coins and circles for cookies

Color: ​Red, blue, orange, green

Texture: ​wrinkles on pants, wooden texture on railing and door, and fabric
on couches.

Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and

dark space and all pages the same or different). (3)

​White borders with the picture in the middle.

Child Development Theory​: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social

Emotional to describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
Erickson:

Name the stage: ​Initiative Vs. Guilt​ and the age: ​4-5 years old.

Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an

example from the book to support your choice:

Children learn to plan, do, work on a task, be active and move. The Little
Critter takes on the task of saving money by doing chores such as
cleaning his room, putting the dishes away and feeding his pet.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: _______​3​_______

Why?

This book encourages the reader to help around the house and be
rewarded for it. It also teacher the reader to save money which is a great
tool of knowledge.