Fiction Evaluation Form

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

Your Name: Karla Castro Book Title: The Day the Crayons Quit
Author: Drew Daywalt Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers

Genre: Fiction Picture Book Publisher/Year: June 27, 2013

https://youtu.be/489micE6eHU

EVALUATE THE BOOK USING THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS

STYLE and Language: Explain the language used – word choices, sentence length, dialogue,
rhythm, rhyme. Explain unexpected
insights or interesting information the reader learns from the story. Give examples form
the book for each one:

Word choice: This book uses many nouns and adjectives. For example, the crayons give many
nouns of what they are used for to draw along with adjectives to describe how they are used.
(“All year long I wear myself out coloring fire engines, apples, strawberries, and everything
else that is red.”)
Sentence length: This book uses many sentences that are medium length. This is because
each crayon is writing a letter, each letter has about 6 sentences on average.
Dialogue: This book consists of letters written to a child named Duncan. During one portion
of the book there is dialogue between two crayons in which they debate who is used for the
color of the sun (yellow and orange).
Rhythm: The rhythm of this book is medium paced. Each letter has quite a bit to read and
each simple color has a letter.
Rhyme: There is no rhyming in this book.
Insights/interesting information: The Day the Crayons Quit won the Goodreads Choice
Awards Best Picture Book.

CHARACTER – 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? Give examples of each from the book.

Main character: There are many characters in this book. As many crayons are writing to their
owner
Personality traits: A variety of personality traits can be given to each individual crayon. For
example, the color purple can be stubborn and ‘bossy,’ white can be very sad and lonely, and
green can be excited and grateful.
How reader can relate to main character: The reader can relate to the crayons at times
because at times some children may feel as though they should get everything at once, like
purple. Or at times the children can relate to white if others do not play with them often. The
reader can connect to a real-life experience that can relate to the crayons feelings of being
overused or underused.
Supporting characters: Duncan, the owner of the crayons and the one who the crayons write
to. Duncan at the end of the story takes in all of the crayons thoughts and recommendations
and uses them for a unique picture at the end of the story.

1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot

 During this book, a variety of crayons (red, purple, beige, grey, white, black, green,
yellow, orange, blue, pink, and peach) have complaints on how they are used or how
little they are used. Each color write to their owner Duncan about their feelings. At
the end of the story Duncan takes into consideration of the letter and creates a very
unique and creative drawing with all of the crayons.

2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book.

THEME- What is the story’s theme or lesson?

Setting: Unknown
Theme: Obligation, Self-interest, Social Norms

ILLUSTRATION –Analyze the illustrations in the book (see Chapter 4 for details on the
categories below.) Choose a 2-page spread in the book to answer the following:
What Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)?
 Realism art style (letters, drawings made by crayons)
 Crayons are in cartoon art style

Illustration and Text: explain how illustration and text combined to tell the story.
Then, explain what illustrations show that text does not explain?
 The illustrations and text work together to tell the story because the text in the story
are shown on a piece of paper in actual letter form. Along with that next to the letter
shows the crayons and what they are usually used for, as described in the text.

Page design --Describe:

The Borders: There are no borders, most of the page is white space.
Use of white/dark space: This book used white space in order to bring out the drawings that
the crayons do and bring attention to them.
Text placemen: The text is the letter that the crayons wrote for Duncan. It makes it look like
actual letters that were written
Font size: Depending on the letter the font size varies from medium to large (depending on
the “handwriting” in the letter).
Placement of illustrations: On the left side of the page there is the letter that the crayons
wrote. On the left side of the page is the actual crayon and the drawings that they do.

3. 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 Concrete Operational Stage and the age 7-11 years old

Explain ONE cognitive development trait from the stage:

 Piaget explained that kids are not only able to start thinking about how other people
view and experience the world, but they also even start to use this type of
information when making decisions or solving problems.

Give examples from the book show how the book fits that trait and cognitive stage:
 Duncan at the end of the book takes in all of the thoughts and complaints of the
crayons and sees how they feel from their perspective. At the end he uses the
information in or to solve to problem and makes a unique and creative picture.

ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage Industry vs. Inferiority Stage and the age 6-11 years old

Explain ONE social development trait for this stage:

 During this stage children are learning about the basic virtue of competence and the
big question that they may ask themselves about and learn about is “How can I be
good?”

Give examples from the book that support that social development trait and of this stage:
 Duncan at the end of the story is learning about competence, how to do something
successfully and efficiently. He is trying to see how to successfully incorporate all of
the colors wishes and request into one picture.