Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Jun Wu

Book Title: Drawn Together

Author: Minh LêGenre: Picture Books/Family Culture/Asian Culture

Illustrator: Dan Santat

Publisher/Year: Disney/Hperion in 2018

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)

More than a half of the pages in this picture book do not have written texts. The pages

with texts involve very short dialogue between the boy and his grandfather and the

narratives of the boy about the drawing that he and his grandfather collaborate together.

Story is written in simple words and short sentences, that allow children to do role play

game and read aloud. Though quite many pages in this book are wordless, children can

understand the storyline easily by looking at the images presented in a comic book style.

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 main characters are the boy and his grandfather, and the supporting characters are

the dragon and the boy’s mother. The character is relatable to young readers, because it

allows readers to make personal connections to their own life experiences, such as the
3rd generation of immigrants might experience language barriers and cultural differences

when interacting with their elderly family members, but they can always find common

interests and establish a good relationship between them without speaking, if they start

to approach to each other and know about each other.

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

The boy and his grandfather have a hard time communicating with each other, because

they have language barriers and different preferences on food and watching tv programs.

However, when they find out they share the same interest, which is storytelling through

drawing, they build connections with each other quickly and develop a good relationship

since then.

Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

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

Setting: The boy’s visit at grandfather’s apartment in the daytime

Theme: We can communicate with others even though we don’t know their languages,

only if we can find our common interests as our own “common language”, and good

relationship can be established if people put effort in observing and approaching.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories

Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2 points)

Cartoon art

Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk): (2
points) Pencils and watercolors on paper

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

(3)

Line: Solid curved, rounded, and flowing

Shapes: Simple, curved, and identifiable

Color: Both warm (yellow, brown, red, burgundy, purple) and cool (blue, green) colors

Texture: Soft with a two-dimensional quality

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

pages the same or different). (3)

Page design is clear, as storyline is displayed in different scenes in a comic book form with

the use of borders.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social Emotional to

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

Piaget:

Name the stage and the age

Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the book

to support your choice:

Erickson:

Name the stage Preschool, Initiative vs guilt and the age 4-8

Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the book

to support your choice:

Children at this stage start to plan activities with their own purposes and like to engage

in activities associated with imagination – The boy in this story doesn’t understand the tv

program that his grandfather is watching, because the language used in the program is

in Vietnamese. The boy might feel bored and then starts to find something else to do,

which is drawing. In his drawing, he creates a character who is a warrior-like magician,

which reflects the boy’s imaginative world.

Emotional Development:

Identify the age:

Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates

to the emotional level you chose:

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3

Why? This book allows children to use imagination and creative thinking to participate in

storytelling practice in their own ways. Children can also engage in interactive activities

that help improve their critical thinking and communication skills.