Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Carmen Chavez

Book Title: What Pet Should I Get?
Author: Dr. Seuss
Genre: Children’s Literature
Illustrator: Dr. Seuss
Publisher/Year: Random House/ 2015
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)
- This book was full of rhyming words and patterns. The rhyming pattern that I
noticed throughout the book was A B C B. Ex. “I might find a new one. A fast
kind of thing who would fly round my head in a ring on a string!” They
sentences were short for the most part and kept it to the minimum. There was
dialogue in the book because the two main characters were deciding what pet
to buy so they discussed.

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 characters in this book are Jay and Kay. In this book, the reader can
relate in the struggle that the two kids are facing. They cannot decide on what
pet they want and I think indecisiveness is very relatable amongst a huge
crowd.

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

- The plot of this story is Jay and Kay trying to find a pet before their time is over,
which is noon. They then finally settle on a pet and make their way home.

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 the book is at the pet store where Jay and Kay are looking to buy
a new pet.
- The main message of the book is companionship and choosing the right one.
 There are so many options that Jay and Kay encounter and they struggle to
choose which one they want to buy and take home with them to be their
forever companion. It is no secret that pets can single handedly make a home
so much better. Choosing the right one that truly makes the owner happy is a
process but worth it in the end.

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

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

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: There are all kinds of different lines in the book. Horizontal, diagonal, and
vertical. The one that has the most effect would be the diagonal lines though. They
are drawn to show movement with the two main characters as well as movement of
the animals.
Shapes: The shapes in the book are mostly curved. Animals do come from nature so
for example the shape of the fish and the shape of other animals that they may run
into.
Color: This book uses a mix of both cool and warm colors. Backgrounds consist of
yellow on some pages and blue in others.
Texture:
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
- Most of the pages held illustrations of different animals that Kay and Jay could
choose from. A reoccurring thing were white spaces with occasional squiggly
lines or horizontal lines.

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 concrete operational and the age 7-12 years
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:
- “Understands world through logical thinking and categories.” All throughout the
story, Jay and Kay are weighing the odds of what pet to get. Whenever there is
a pet not fit for them, the say the reason why and it is logical thinking.

Erickson:
Name the stage Industry vs inferiority and the age School age
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:
- “Work in multi-ability groups with their peers working together.” In the story,
Jay and Kay were working together to find their ideal pet and companion. After
many seen options, they both settled on one.

Emotional Development:
Identify the age: 3-6 years
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose:
- “More accuracy and complexity understanding consequences, causes, and
behavior signs.” Throughout the story, the kids kept reminding each other of
the things they had to do before they would have to suffer consequences. For
ex. Picking out a pet by noon or else they would not get a pet, choosing a pet
that is not to expensive and crazy otherwise their dad would not buy it.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3

Why?

- I rate this book a 3 because I really like the content of it. It had amazing
illustrations that caught my attention. The book also had a lot of rhyming which
I always enjoy. It is very soothing to hear words rhyme. The theme of the book
is also very sweet and I think more kids should read it.