Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Daisy Azpeitia

Book Title: Goin Someplace Special
Author: Patricia C. Mckissack
Genre: Historical Fiction
Illustrator: Jerry Pickney
Publisher/Year: 2001
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)
In the book “Goin Someplace Special” there is a lot of big vocabulary words being
used like excitement, marshmallows, granddaughter everything and grandmother.
These are just some big vocabulary words that are being used in the book. The book
also uses a lot of punctuation in the story, for example, “Mama Frances, may I go to
Someplace Special by myself, today? Pretty Please? I know where to get off the bus
and what streets to take and all.” Also, in the book the sentence structures of the
book are very long, some of the sentences contain a lot of sentences in just one page
of the 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?
The main character in the book “Goin Someplace Special” is a little girl called Tricia
Ann.
The supporting characters of the book “Goin Someplace Special is Mama Frances and
Tricia Ann’s Grandmother. The reader can relate to the characters in the story
because they can understand the story of what is happening, and they are can also
relate situation that is happening in the book very well.

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

Some of the major events in the story are inside the house by the kitchen table where
the girl lives at. Another major event is outside in front of the girls’ house where
there is plants and grass. Another event happening in the book is inside a bus,
outside of the bus as she is arriving to her someplace special. Another event is
outside around the town where there is a big Peace Fountain and where there is a
bench. Another major event is outside where there is a street vendor. Another event
is in front of a hotel called Southland and inside of the hotel’s lobby where there is a
lot of people. Another event is at a church and inside a walled garden. One other
major event is at a Grand Music Palace. The final major event is at the public library.

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

I think that in the book “Goin Someplace Special” takes place in the 1950’s in
Nashville, Tennessee. The book takes place in a small-town during segregation

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

I think that the main message of the book “Goin Someplace Special” is about the
pride of growing up, the fear and sadness of facing prejudice and finding a safe place
in the world to stay at and feel comfortable being there.

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 “Goin Someplace Special”
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 looks like they
use 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 “Goin Someplace Special uses a lot of watercolors and pencil 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 illustration uses
straight, curvy, diagonal, vertical and horizontal lines being used. For example, in the
book you can see that there is a cabinet in the kitchen that has a sink on top. It looks
like the sink uses straight and vertical lines to make the outline of the sink. There are
also horizontal lines being used for the outline of the sink. On the cabinet there is
drawls with handles on them, some of the handles are drawn using curvy lines to
make the handle of the drawls and the drawls also uses vertical, straight, and
horizontal line for the outline of the drawls. The girl’s eyebrows, eye lids, nose, lips,
and her hair are drawn using curvy lines. Also, the girls dress is made using curvy lines
like in the middle of her dress there is a belt attached to it and the belt is drawn using
curvy lines. The mom’s hair uses a lot of small curvy lines, and her dress too is also
made from curvy lines. The design that is found at the top of the chair is made of
curvy lines. The front door of the house is drawn using horizontal and vertical lines to
make the outline of the door. The wheels that are found on the grass in front of the
house is made using curvy and straight lines to make the shape of the wheel. The
little girl’s hat is made using curvy lines and her mom’s apron. The inside of the bus
there is seats, and the seats are made using vertical and horizontal lines. Also, on the
sides of the seats and around the seats there is a big pole where the passengers can
hold on to and those metal poles are drawn using thin vertical straight lines and the
metal part found at the top of the seats uses curvy line to make the design of the
seats. The little girl’s purse is also made using vertical and horizontal lines to make
the outline or shape of the purse and the handle that is found on the purse is drawn
using curvy lines. The signs that are found inside the bus are drawn using vertical and
horizontal lines as well. The people’s hair, face and hats that is found in the bus are
all drawn using curvy, vertical, horizontal, and straight lines. The newspaper that the
women is reading on the bus is drawn using vertical, horizontal and some curvy lines
to make the pages of the book look wrinkly. The double door on the bus uses vertical
lines and the windows also uses vertical and horizontal lines to make the shape of the
windows and the doors of the bus. In one of the illustrations of the book you can see
at the back of picture that there are some neighborhood houses drawn and those
buildings are drawn using horizontal and vertical lines to make the shape of the
buildings look like they are houses. The houses that are drawn in the back has a lot of
small windows drawn using small vertical and horizontal lines. In one of the
illustrations there is a huge water fountain, and the water fountain is drawn using
vertical lines to make the design of the fountain and the sides of the fountain. The
curvy lines that are used on the fountain are used all around the fountain to make
the shape of it. Some of the benches that are found in one of the illustrations is
drawn using vertical and horizontal lines and little of diagonal lines as well. The
sidewalk that is found in one of the illustrations is drawn with curvy lines to make the
sidewalk look like it is going someplace else. In one of the illustrations there is a lot of
plants and bushes around the page and those bushes are drawn using curvy lines and
diagonal lines to make the top of the tree look like it is pointy at the top. The bird’s
wings that are found in the picture is made using curvy lines to make the shape and
the outline of the wings. In one of the illustrations, you can see a street vendor selling
pretzels and those pretzels are drawn using curvy lines to make the shape of the
pretzel. There is also a fire hydrant, and the top of the fire hydrant is drawn with
curvy lines and the sides of the fire hydrant is made with vertical and horizontal lines.
One of the men that is found in the picture is using a bow tie and that bow tie is
drawn with curvy lines, horizontal and vertical lines. The guy also has a vest, and that
vest uses curvy lines to make the shape of the vest. The door of the hotel uses
vertical and horizontal lines and straight lines for the outline of the doors. In one of
the illustrations of the book you can see that there is a lobby inside the hotel and the
top of the door found in the inside of the door uses big curvy lines to make the
outlines of the door. The chandelier found inside the hotel is made with curvy lines
some of the lines are thick and some are thin. The big chairs found inside the hotel
are made with curvy lines, and the sides of the chairs are drawn using vertical and
horizontal straight lines. The brick walls that are found as the entrance of the garden
are all drawn using straight, long vertical, and horizontal lines and the top of the brick
wall they use diagonal lines to make the top of the brick wall pointy. The water well
that is found inside the garden is made using curvy lines and so is the woman in
pictures hair is made with curvy lines. The design in one of the kid’s shirts is drawn
with vertical lines and horizontal lines. The windows found on the outside of the
library are all drawn with curvy lines and the top of the door they used diagonal lines
put together to make it look like it is pointy. The rest of the library building uses
vertical, straight, horizontal lines and diagonal lines to make the library. The car that
is found in one of the illustrations is made using horizontal and diagonal lines to make
the shape of the car.
Shapes: In the book, there is squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, domes, and
rectangles being used in the book. For example, the cabinets that are found in the
kitchen are shaped as squares and the drawls that are found on the cabinet are
shaped as small rectangles. The sink that is found in the illustration is shaped as a big
square. The little girl’s eyes and the mom’s eyes are shaped as tiny ovals. The handles
on the drawls are shaped as a small dome. The vegetables and bowl that is found
inside of the sink are all shaped as circles. The buttons that are found on the stove
are made of small circles. The big wheels found at the front of the house are shaped
as big circles. The door and windows of the house are shaped as long rectangles. The
windows found in the middle of the bus’s doors are shaped as rectangles with an oval
shaped at the top of the window. All the windows found on the bus are all shaped as
squares with the edges of the windows being curved. On the seats the part where
you sit at is shaped as a long rectangle and the top of the seat where the people put
there backs at are shaped as a big wide rectangle. The signs that are found in the bus
are shaped as a small rectangle. The little girl’s hat is shaped as a circle and the top
part of the hat is shaped as a dome. Also, the little girl’s purse is shaped as a small
square with the handle of the purse drawn as a dome. The top windows found on the
sides of the bus are shaped as long ovals and the newspaper that the lady is reading
inside of the bus is shaped as a rectangle and the purse of one of the ladies in the bus
is shaped as a rectangle. In one of the illustrations there is a huge water fountain, and
that water fountain is shaped as a huge circle and the small water fountain found at
the bottom is shaped as a circle as well. The design that is found on the walls of the
fountains are shaped as rectangles. The benches are shaped as rectangles. The top
part of the water fountain is shaped as a dome. In one of the illustrations there is a
fire hydrant, and the top part of the fire hydrant is shaped as a dome and the sides of
the fire hydrant are shaped as a rectangle. The street vendors cart is shaped as a
small square. The buildings window that is found next to the street vendor is shaped
as squares with the top of the window being drawn with small rectangles. The
sidewalk in some of the illustrations are drawn with long rectangles and some with
small squares. The big door found on the hotel is shaped as a rectangle. Inside of the
hotel there is like a small kitchen and the kitchen is shaped as a big square. The top of
the door found in the inside of the hotel is shaped as a big dome with a rectangle
across the dome. The cabinets found inside of the lobby are shaped as squares. The
brick wall that is drawn as the entrance of the garden is shaped as a rectangle and the
top of the brick wall is shaped as a pyramid. The bricks found on the brick walls are
shaped as tiny rectangles. The well found on the inside of the garden is shaped as a
circle and the buildings found in one of the illustrations is shaped as big rectangles
with one of the buildings having a dome at the top of the building. In one of the
illustrations, you can see a girl wearing a shirt and, on her shirt, there is small buttons
shaped as tiny circles. The painting that is found in one of the illustrations is shaped
as a rectangle. The library’s door is shaped as a rectangle and the top of the door the
is a small triangle drawn. On top of that triangle is a big dome that is drawn for one of
the windows of the library. The top part of the library is drawn with big dome
windows. The bottom part of the library the windows are drawn as rectangles. The
car that is found in front of the library has an oval shaped top part drawn and a
rectangle as the rest of the car. The bricks found on the brick wall of the library is
shaped as small rectangles. The fence found on the windows are drawn with thin
rectangles. The outside of the stairs is drawn with small rectangles.
Color: The illustration in the book uses bright and dark colors being used in some of
the illustrations. Also, some of the illustrations in the book uses neutral colors. For
example, the cover page of the book the girls dress uses yellow flowers as the design
on her dress and they also use a bright light green for the plants found in the cover
page of the book. The title of the book is colored using a burgundy color. There are
warm colors being used in some of the illustrations like the chair that is found in one
of the illustrations is colored red and the belt that is found on the little girl’s dress is
colored yellow. Some of the vegetables like the tomatoes are colored red. In some of
the illustrations you can see that there are neutral colors being used like the skin
color of the little girl and the moms are colored brown. The girl’s dress is a turquoise
color. Also, in some of the illustrations there is white being used as a background of
the page like the kitchen is drawn with white and is also a neutral color. The mom’s
dress is drawn using a neutral color, it is colored gray, and the mom’s hair is also
colored gray. The grass, plants and bushes found outside of the house are all colored
green some of the flowers are colored using a peach color. The flowers found in a pot
are colored pink. The door of the house is colored red. Some of the tires or wheels
found in front of the house are white and black. The door of the bus and the seats
inside of the bus are colored using dark green. One of the ladies found in the bus are
colored red and one lady has a scarf colored as a neutral color, that color is pink. One
of the guys that is found in the bus has jeans colored navy blue and the one of the
lady’s shirts is colored as a peach color with red flowers on it. The guy’s suit is colored
light brown. One of the ladies found in the bus is colored baby blue. One of the ladies
has black hair. Some of the people found outside of the bus stop skin color is colored
a tan color. The tires on the bus are black and the buildings and the trash can find in
that same page are colored white. In one of the illustrations there is a big water
fountain, and the outside of the fountain looks like it is colored as ombre using
neutral colors like light brown, black, gray and white mixed together. Some of the
sidewalk in one of the illustrations is colored with a tan color. Some of the plants and
bushes are colored green and some are colored dark green. The water is colored as a
light blue with white mixed with the blue. Some parts of the sidewalk are colored
gray. The birds are colored using black. The benches found outside are colored with a
light brown and tan color together and the words found on the bench are colored
brown and the side of the bench is colored as a light gray. In one of the illustrations
there is a street vendor and the street vendors cart, pretzels and his jeans are all
colored with a dark brown color. The fire hydrant is colored red, and the buildings
found next to the street vendor are colored with blue and white color and the bottom
of the window is colored a blue and grayish color. The street vendors vest, and hat
are colored black with a little bit of blue mixed with it. There is people outside of the
hotel that are wearing different color clothes like light blue dress, some are green,
the other dresses are black. The color of the hotel is a light brown with blue at the
top of the hotel building and the hotel’s doorman is wearing black and white clothes
with a red and black hat. In one of the illustrations, you can see that there is a lot of
people inside the lobby of the hotel, inside the lobby you can see that the color of the
walls is colored using tan and white color together to make an ombre color. There are
different colors found inside the lobby like in the lobby there is a lot of neutral color
being used like tan, baby blue, black, white, light brown dark brown, gray and a little
bit of cool colors like green. There is also a little bit of pink being used. The rest of the
page is colored white, and the carpet of the lobby is colored as a burgundy color. In
one of the illustrations, you can see that there is a chair that uses green and yellow to
create an ombre color. In one of the illustrations, you can see a brick wall and that
brick wall is colored using white, gray, light brown and black to create and ombre
effect on the brick wall. They also used light green and green to create a dirty green
for some of the grass and the plants. The garden is full of dark green, light green and
black mixed to create and ombre or shadowing plants. There is also some tan being
used for the floor and the well found in the garden is colored using light gray and
white mixed for the outside of the well and dark gray for the inside of the well. The
grandma’s dress uses a hot pink and purple color mixed with other colors for the
design of the dress. The Grand Music Palace is colored using a light brown color
mixed with white and the lady’s shirt is colored pink with a dark brown skirt. The
library is colored with light grey and blueish color with a red door. The car is colored
red with a black rooftop and yellow as the design found outside of the car. There is
also different neutral colors used together to create an ombre effect on the brick wall
of the library.
Texture: Some of the illustrations found in the book are thickly colored, like some of
the illustrations you can see that they used a lot of color. There are also some
illustrations that looks like they barely used any color like some of the illustrations are
lightly colored. It looks like some of the illustrations the colors are mixed with water
to make the colors look like they are light washed. For example, the background in
some of the illustrations are lightly colored with white and tan colors. Some of the
brick walls in the illustrations are colored to create an ombre washed color using
neutral colors. Some of the illustrations look like there are colors being layered
together and some of the illustrations look like they are colored messy. Also, in the
book they use watercolor to make the pictures look realistic and it also made some of
the illustrations look like some were blended and some were light colored.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
Some of the illustrations in the book are colorful. In some of the illustrations there is
white and dark spaces being used. There is a lot of white spaces being used in some
of the illustrations as the background color and to brighten some parts of the
illustrations. There is also a lot of illustrations in the book that uses a lot of white
space. The placement of the illustrations is found all over the pages. Some of the
illustrations that are found in some of the pages are found in the middle of the page,
some of them are found at the bottom right and bottom left of the page, some are
found at the top right and top left of the page. Some are drawn with big illustrations
that are fill up the whole page. Some of the pages even have one illustration that is
found in the middle of the page and is drawn big to fill up the page. All the pages that
are found in the book are all different.

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:
This book demonstrates preoperational stage ages 2-7 years because the book is
historical fiction and there is also a lot of realistic illustrations to make the book look
like it is realistic. Also, the book has a nice message for students to read about.

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 has a very nice and great message in the book to
read to the children, The book is very informative it contains a lot of information for
the students to learn about. The book also has very nice illustrations, some of the
illustrations have a lot of color and are made realistic.