Children’s Modern Fantasy Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Breanna Holden

Book Title: Where the Wild Things Are 15th anniversary edition
Author: Maurice Sendak
Genre: Modern Fantasy. Children’s Fantasy & Magic Books
Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins Reprint 2013. Originally published 1963 by Harper &
Row
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)
The narrator used imagery in its word choices. I could close my eyes while listening to
this story and be able to have a picture of what is being illustrated in the book. There
was also dialogue from the main character Max. There was no direct language from
the Wild Things, but the narrator was able to do a good job at describing their
feelings and thoughts in a way that flowed with Max’s conversations and adventure.

Sentence length varied from page to page. Some sentences were short and made you
want to flip the page to see what was said next. While others were long and filled
with descriptive words and verbs.

I found the rhythm to be upbeat and fast paced. When I read this book, I get excited
and want to continue moving through the words rather quickly. However, I get to the
pages that just have illustration and I slow back down. Some sentences repeated
words to get a certain point across. Those same sentences were repeated towards
the end of the book.
There were occasions of rhyming words in the book but was not a consistent style
throughout.

Unexpected insight from this story is that anger is only temporary. He was upset and
turned to his imagination which was fun and full of adventure. However, when the
anger wore off he came back to reality and had supper waiting for him. His anger
wore off and he was happy to have a hot supper.
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 character in this story is Max
The reader can relate to the character because all the readers have been wild and
used their imaginations in fun and exciting ways. Max was punished, but able to
make his punishment fun using his imagination.
The supporting character is the Wild Things and his mother.

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

Max is dressed up for mischief and gets sent to his room without supper when he
told his mother he’d eat her up. While in his room he creates a magical land that has
Wild Things in it. Max becomes King and seems to be enjoying his time until he smells
something that reminds him of home and the love his home has. He finds himself
back in his room with hot supper waiting for him.

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

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

Setting of this book is in Max’s room and a magical land that Max creates. This
magical place took Max over a year to get to and is where the Wild Things live.

There are a couple themes that could be taken from this book. One is imagination is
powerful. That the power of imagination is magical and can produce such amazing
adventures is an amazing thing to teach the reader.
Also, I find anger and punishment to be a theme also. He misbehaved and faced a
punishment, which made him angry. However, the anger was only temporary, and he
ended up wanting to be home with his mom, who loves him. Even though she
punished him didn’t mean she didn’t love him. She may have sent him to his room
with no supper, however she still brought him supper in the end.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2 points)

The book is illustrated with cartoon art.

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

The illustrations were created with paints and pen etchings.

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

Line: Lines in this book were both curved and straight. They move in all directions.
Lines were used throughout to provide detail and demonstrate movement.
Shapes: Shapes were used to provide dimension to the artwork. Both manmade
shapes and natural shapes appeared in the illustrations.
Color: The illustrations had a low saturation. The hues used were very neutral. Lots of
browns, tans, greens, and yellows used. Black was used throughout with lines.
Texture: The texture in this book’s images were rough looking. The etching and
crosshatching that was used didn’t provide a soft appearance. The sky and water
were two of the few illustrations that weren’t crosshatched and gave a smooth
appearance.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and all pages
the same or different). (3)

Pages had words written on white. The illustrations never had words written on top
of it. Some pages had the whole left side white with a few words and the right side
filled with a beautiful drawing. While other pages had the words stretched across two
pages under neath the drawings. Some pages had no words and was filled with a
illustration sprawled across both pages. There were several pages back-to-back with
just illustrations and no words.

No borders were used and the dark spaces would consist of the drawings and the
light would have the words in it.

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

describe the connection to the book Choose 1 only (5 points)
Emotional Development:
Identify the age: 3-6 years old
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose: More accuracy and complexity in understanding
consequences, causes, and behavior signs.

This book encourages emotional development because it addresses Max getting in

trouble and going to his room. However, it was how Max handled his anger and used
his imagination to transform his punishment into a magical place. Children are able to
relate to feeling emotions and can learn how to navigate through them in a positive
way.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3 highly recommend

Why?

I recommend because for children magic and other worlds makes things exciting. This
story creates a whole world to escape to when Max gets into trouble. It shows the
reader how amazing imagination can be and demonstrates a way to cope with being
angry. Instead of Max yelling and crying he made a special place for him to be wild.
There are so many good lessons and talking points to be shared in the book. Not only
are the words easy for children to follow along to the illustrations enhance the
experience. As stated earlier I could shut my eyes and listen to the words and have an
idea of what was appearing on the pages. However, when I open my eyes and see the
detail and the illustrations come to life it makes the book that much more exciting.

The magic in this story is very simple, it doesn’t seem far-fetched because all children
use their imagination to play every day. It is relatable and makes the story have an
exciting edge.