Fiction Evaluation Form

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

Your Name: Ines Solano Book Title: The Mitten

Author: Jan Brett Illustrator: Jan Brett

Genre: Fiction Publisher/Year: Penguin Young Readers Group 2009

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: Admire

Sentence length: He stopped for moment to admire his winter coat.
Dialogue:
Rhythm: n/a
Rhyme: n/a
Insights/interesting information

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: The mole, rabbit, badger, hedgehog, fox, owl, bear, and mouse
Personality traits:
How reader can relate to main character:
Supporting characters: Nikki and his Babba

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

“The Mitten” is a story of a little boy that lost his mitten in the snow.  Soon after, an animal finds its
way into the mitten.  It doesn’t take long until many more animals join in.  The mitten becomes
stretched out and cramped for space.  Eventually, the mitten bursts and throws all of the animals out.

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

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

Setting: Snowy day in Ukraine

Theme: scarcity of resources
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

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 displayed the animals going in the mitten as told by the text. The illustrations gave
context to the animals who entered and also told which would be next.

Page design --Describe:

The Borders: Wooden boarders with “windows” to the next page.
Use of white/dark space: n/a
Text placemen: Bottom of page
Font size: 14pt
Placement of illustrations: Whole page

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_Preoperational_____________________ and the age__2-7___________________

Explain ONE cognitive development trait from the stage:

Give examples from the book show how the book fits that trait and cognitive stage:

ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage _ initiative v guilt ___________________ and the age___3-6__________________

Explain ONE social development trait for this stage:

Give examples from the book that support that social development trait and of this stage:

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Identify the Age __________________________________
Explain ONE emotional development trait for this age:

Give examples from the book to illustrate that emotional development trait and this age: