Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Anela Gonsalves-Park

Book Title: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
Author: Mo Willems
Genre: Modern Fantasy
Illustrator: Mo Willems
Publisher/Year: Hyperon Books for Children/ 2003
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 word choice within this book is simple and easy to understand. Most of the text
within this book is dialogue from the pigeon to the reader. There is not much rhythm
or rhymes, but the sentence lengths are short.

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 is the pigeon.

The reader can relate to the character because the pigeon is not able to drive the bus
just as young children has limitations to what they can and cannot do.

The supporting character is the bus driver.

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

The bus driver leaves the bus unattended while he does something and tells the
reader not to let the pigeon drive the bus. The bus driver knows that the pigeon has a
strong desire to drive the bus. The pigeon imagines being able to drive the bus and
then tries numerous ways to persuade the reader to let him drive the bus. Some
things the pigeon tried to do is bribe the reader or says he’ll be their friend if they let
him drive the bus. The bus driver then comes back and leaves the pigeon with the
satisfaction that he did not drive the bus. Then the pigeon sees a big truck and
imagines driving it.

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

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

The setting of this book is during the daytime and is outside near a bus.

The theme of this book is that it is good to dream about things and wish for them but
not all things are logical to do.

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

The style of this book is naïve and surrealism.

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

I think the media choice is crayons, pencils, and pens.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: Used to outline the pigeon as well as his movements. The lines are dark, bold,
and black.
Shapes: Used to portray real life things in the background. For example, the bus
resembles a rectangle, and the wheels are circles. Also, the pigeon’s eyes are circles.
Color: There are mainly cool colors but also some warm colors. The cool colors are
seen within the bus, pigeon, and bus driver. The warm colors are seen in the
background and the big truck.
Texture: Used in the book to show the smoothness of the pigeon and his
surroundings.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)

The illustrations usually take up the whole page but can also be same as though to
have a lot of empty space within the background. There are no use of boarders, and
every page is different with its layout and illustrations.

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 Preoperational and the age 2-7 years
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:

Within this stage, children are expected to understand the world through language
and mental images. An example from the book that supports this would be when the
pigeon imagines being able to drive the bus and makes a mental image of it.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3

Why?

I think this book is really engaging for children and shows them how important it is to
understand the concept of “no” but also that it is good to dream.