Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Alexa Tribuli

Book Title: Who Was Martin Luther King Jr.?
Author: Lisbeth Kaiser
Genre: Biography
Illustrator: Stanley Chow
Publisher/Year: Penguin Young Readers Group / 2020
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 CHOICES:
Words are simple, not too challenging. Some words that help expand student’s
vocabulary are: unfairly, studied, reverend, community, freedom, justice, speech, and
celebrate.

DIALOUGE:
There is no dialogue between characters, but there is quotes from Martin Luther King
Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech. “I have a dream that one day…we will…stand up for
freedom together…All of God’s children…will be able to join hands and sing… “Free at
last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”

RHYTHM:
Story has a steady and calm rhythm. It is almost a representation of who Martin
Luther King Jr. was. MLK Jr. was very levelheaded and calm yet also dedicated and
brave.

RHYME:
There are no rhyming words in this book.

SENTENCE LENGTH:
Sentences are all short. This helps contribute to the informativeness of this book,
helping to get to the point of telling the story of Martin Luther King Jr.

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?

MAIN CHARCTER:
Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr. for short)

RELATE:
He had a dream, just like everyone else. He wanted everyone to walk hand in hand
toward a new world of equality.

SUPPORTING CHARCTERS:
MLK Jr.’s Dad
MLK Jr.’s Mom
MLK Jr.’s Big Sister
MLK Jr.’s Little Brother

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

1. MLK Jr.’s home life when young was good. MLK was very happy and filled with
love.
2. MLK Jr. also loved going to church. He was filled with kindness.
3. MLK Jr. was taught to love everyone, but not everyone was taught to love him
and those that were a different skin tone then themselves. MLK Jr. lost his best
friend because of this.
4. MLK Jr. was sadden and also driven by how people did not treat each other
kindly and fairly. He studied and learned about how to change things.
5. MLK Jr. became a Reverend and an activist. He inspired people.
6. He preached being able to change the world peacefully.
7. Not everyone wanted the change that MLK Jr. spoke of, but many people
agreed with MLK Jr.
8. MLK Jr. gave a speak about his dream of freedom and justice for all.
9. RECAP OF MLK JR.’S SPEAK
10. Every year we celebrate MLK Jr. on his birthday in remembrance of what he
did to help create the free and justice world of today time.
11.BONUS INFO: Background knowledge for teacher to read to help extend the
student’s learning.
Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)
Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)

SETTING:
The South between 1929 (MLK Jr. Birth) through 1968 (MLK Jr.’s assassination)

THEME:
Dream, Believe, Do (just like MLK Jr.’s theme)

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

Realism: Illustrations are very realistic and proportionate to real life figures.

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

Paints, Watercolor, and Pen

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

Line:
All lines are thin, making a very natural setting. The only straight lines are to make the
background like the pictures and tables.

Shapes:
There are many shapes in the illustrations of this book. Most are avant garde shapes
and some are the classic shapes. The classic shapes such as squares, circles, and
triangles are used to create the sedentary background.
Squares: Picture frames and window frames
Circles: Tires on the bus
Triangle: Roofs on the houses

Color:
The hues are mostly warm in the illustrations. The brightness and saturation of the
illustrations are also bright and clear, making it easy to see all features in the
illustrations.

Texture:
The illustrations does not have must texture, the illustrations are vert flat.

Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)

The entire page is used and covered in illustrations. There are no blank boarders or
white space.

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

describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
ERICKSON
Stage: Initiative VS. Guilt
Age: Three to Five
Explain the Cognitive Development:
In this stage of development, children want to mimic the adults around them in play.
Children want to feel capable of succeeding to lead themselves and groups. This book
is a great way for students to see a good role model to mimic in their play and in their
life. Martin Luther King Jr. was taught to love and be kind to all the people around
him, and even though not everyone was taught that he still stayed strong in his beliefs
of loving and kindness.

RATING
Your rating of the book: 3

Why?
I really like this entire collection of books because I feel that these books are a great
way to just introduce these important people in history to young children. It is never
to early to start teaching children about history because history is more than just
history. These books provide language and ideas that young children are fully capable
of understanding. For example, in the book about Martin Luther King Jr., the book
talks about loving and being kind to everyone around you. This is a great way to show
and teach young children these concepts.