Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Daisy Azpeitia

Book Title: Dragons Love Tacos
Author: Adam Rubin
Genre: Fantasy/ Picture book
Illustrator: Daniel Salmieri
Publisher/Year: June 14, 2012
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 book Dragons Love Tacos uses a lot of big vocabulary words. For example, the
book has words like accordions, gigantic, charades and conversations. The sentence
length in the book are quite long they also use punctuations like “These dragons love
your taco party! They love the music. They love the decorations. They especially love
the tacos. Congratulations!” There is also repetition words being used in the book like
“Did you know that Dragons love tacos? They love beef and chicken tacos. They love
really big, gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” This example in the book
uses the word tacos a lot. In this sentence you can see that they use a lot of
repetition words in this book.

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?
In the book “Dragons Love Tacos” the main character is the kid
The supporting characters in the book “Dragon’s love Tacos” are the dragons and the
dog. The reader can relate to the characters in the story because they can understand
the story of what is happening and can relate to the situation very well.

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

Some of the major events in the story are a bedroom that is seen in one of the
pictures. Another major event of the story is the kitchen, in one of the illustrations
you can see a stove and food being cooked. Also, in one of the pictures you can see
that they are mixing ingredients in a kitchen table. Another event is outside, some of
the illustrations you can see a dragon flying outside in a place where there is
mountains and a river. Some of the other events are found outside by a river because
there is a ship in the illustration and it looks like they are packing food in a storage
house, and you can also see that there are different dragons found outside of the
house. In one of the illustrations, you can see that they are digging in the backyard of
the house and inside of the house they are throwing a party.

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

I think that in the book “Dragon’s Love Tacos” the setting takes place at a house, a
bedroom that is found in the book and the kitchen. It also takes place outside.

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

The theme of the book “Dragon’s Love Tacos” is a funny, silly picture book and it also
informs the reader about tacos.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2
points)
Based on the book, I think that the illustrations in the book “Dragon’s love Tacos”
uses the style realism. I think that it is realism because the pictures in the book look
realistic, some of the illustrations in the book look very detailed and look like they
used a lot of watercolors for the illustrations.
Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk):
(2 points)
I think that the book “Dragon’s Love Tacos” uses a lot of watercolors, pencil, and pen
to make the illustrations of the book.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: In the book there are different illustrations, some of the illustrations uses
straight, curvy, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines being used. For example, the
book has a big bookshelf, and the bookshelf uses vertical and horizontal lines. In the
book there is also a big picture frame and in that picture frame it uses horizontal and
vertical lines. The book in the picture also uses vertical and horizontal lines. In the
illustration you can see a bed and the bed you can see that the vertical and horizontal
lines to make the shape of the bed. The legs of the bed are tall and skinny, the leg of
the bed uses vertical and horizonal lines to make the bed. The design that is found at
the tip of the legs uses small vertical and horizontal lines to make the design of the
bed. The pillow on the bed also uses vertical lines to make the design of the blanket.
In one of the illustrations in the book you can see a dog in the picture and in the dog’s
tail they use curvy lines to make the shape of the tail look like it is curved. The legs of
the dog and the kid’s legs both are drawn using vertical lines. In one of the
illustrations in the book you can see a kitchen, in the kitchen there is a stove in the
picture and the stove is drawn using vertical and horizontal lines. In the picture there
are also pots being used in the kitchen, some of the pots are drawn with vertical and
horizontal lines to make the shape of the pot. The arm of a person is seen in the
picture and in the picture the arm is drawn with curvy lines, to make it look like the
arm is curved. In one of the illustrations in the book you can see a big cave on the
side of the book, the cave is drawn using curvy and some diagonal lines and vertical
lines to make the outline of the cave. The dragon that is found in the picture uses
curvy lines like the wings on the dragons are drawn with curvy lines to make the
shape of the wings. The horns or ears of the dragon also uses curvy lines to make the
ears look curved. The spikes that are on the dragon’s tail uses straight lines. The arms
of the dragons use curvy lines to make the arms look like they are curved. The collar
shirt that the kids have in the picture uses curvy lines for the collar shirt. The kid’s
hair uses diagonal lines for the hair. The kids’ eyes, ears and arms all use curvy lines.
The dogs’ ears, tongue and mouth are drawn using curvy lines. The book that is found
on the table uses vertical and horizontal line and the salsas containers all use vertical
and horizontal lines too. The dragon is drawn using curvy and straight lines for the
ears and the face. The dragon’s tiny fingers and the mouth are drawn using curvy
lines. The vegetables are drawn using curvy lines. In one of the illustrations there is a
lot of dragons, and all the dragons are drawn with curvy, vertical, and horizontal
lines. In one of the illustrations there is a house, a door, and boxes of vegetables and
all those are drawn using horizontal and vertical lines. The big ship is drawn using
curvy lines. The design of the rooftop is drawn using curvy lines.
Shapes: In the book, there is circles, cylinders, ovals, square and rectangles being
used in the book. For example, the buttons to turn on the stove are shaped as tiny
circles. One of the pots that is found on the stove is shaped as a big cylinder. The
other pots found on the stove are shaped as circles as well. The taco shells are
shaped as a dome. The tomatoes and onions are also shaped as circles. There are also
squares being in the used in the book, in one of the illustrations you can see a tiny
bag and the bag is shaped as a small square. In one of the illustrations, you can see
that there are mountains, the mountains in the back are shaped as triangles. The
eyes of the dragon are shaped as circles. The dogs’ eyes are shaped as small circles.
The bowl that is found on the table is shaped as a circle and the lids of the spicy salsa
container that is found on the table also is shaped as a circle. The kid’s eyes are
shaped as ovals and the dog’s nose and the kids’ nose is shaped as a triangle. The
tomatoes, the lettuce and the cheese are all shaped as a circle. In the illustration
there is boxes filled with vegetables and they all are shaped as squares. The door of
the house or building is shaped as a rectangle and the window is shaped like a
rectangle. The crate that the kids is pushing is shaped as a rectangle. The sidewalk is
shaped as a long rectangle. The rooftop of the house is shaped as a big triangle. The
tables in the picture are all shaped as rectangle
Color: The illustration in the book uses a lot of neutral colors and bright colors. For
example, the bright colors being used are cool and warm colors. The blanket that is
on the bed is colored orange, the dragons that are found on top of the shelf uses red
and the other is a bright orange color. The taco shells in the illustration are colored
yellow, the tomatoes are red, and the pepper is colored yellow. There are also
neutral colors being used like one of the dragons that are found on the shelf is
colored baby blue. The walls of the room are colored white, the frame that is found in
the room hanging uses neutral colors like light blue, gray and pink. The floor that is in
in the room is colored brown and the shelf uses a light brown. The shelf that is in the
picture uses a beige color and the dog also is colored beige. There are cool colors
being used in some of the illustrations like they use purple and blue for the kids
clothing. There is dark brown being used in one of the illustrations for the countertop
of the kitchen and the beans. The stove is colored white, and the bottom cabinet of
the stove is colored black. The peppers use warm colors like red and yellow. There
are also colors being blended like for the one of the peppers they colored light green.
The garlic in the picture looks like they blended colors white and yellow to make it
look like it was dirty. In one of the illustrations, you can see that they used white and
grey mixed together to cast shadow and add dimension to the cave, same with the
mountains they mixed dark and light brown. The inside of the cave they colored it
black and a little bit of dark blue to make it seem like there is light in the cave. They
also mixed a red, and a little bit of purple to make the dragon look like it was colored
a burgundy color. They also mixed a yellow and orange color to make a mustard
color. They also used a light gray color for the house and the wall mixed with a little
of white. There is also a bag colored dark brown that the dog was pulling in the
picture. The ship in the picture is colored white mixed with a light blue and greyish
color, to create an ombre look on the ship. One of the dragons is colored with a dark
royal blue and beige tan color. The windows curtains of the house is colored sky blue
and it looks like they used purple mixed with a brownish color for the inside of the
house. They also used a dark forest green and a light green for the window. The
books are all colored using neutral colors.
Texture: The illustrations in the book are thickly colored like some of the pictures look
like they used a lot of color to fill up the page. Some of the pictures in the book look
like the colors are being layered and the colors are being blended too. Some of the
illustrations are smoothly colored.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
The illustrations of the book are all colorful. It uses white and dark spaces on some of
the illustrations. The white is sometimes used to brighten up the illustration a little bit
and the black is used to cast a shadow like in animals and in some of the pictures. The
placement of the illustrations is found all over the pages. Some are found at the
bottom of the page; some are found in the middle of the page and the others at the
bottom left of the pages. Some of the illustrations in the book do use borders. Some
are drawn inside a big oval. Also, some of the illustrations are found at the top of the
page and all pages in the book are different, some of the illustrations have borders
and others do not.

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______________
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:
This book demonstrates preoperational stage ages 2-7 years because in the book is a
fantasy book and there are dragons to make the book a fairytale story. The book is
told through a kid and about dragons. The book also uses language.
Erickson:
Name the stage_____________________ and the age_______________________
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:

Emotional Development:
Identify the age: _________________________
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose:

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: ______2________

Why?
I recommend this book because it is a funny and great book to read to the kids, the
book has a nice story and great illustrations, the illustrations have a lot of color, and
the illustrations look realistic.