Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Carmen Chavez

Book Title: Why Should I Recycle?
Author: Jen Green
Genre: Informational
Illustrator: Mike Gordon
Publisher/Year: Sourcebooks Explore, 2005
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 this book, there is a lot of dialogue. Dialogue sometimes comes in text and
other times, it is put into speech bubbles. Sentence length in this book is
relatively long when compared to other preschool books. The book is not a
rhyming book therefore there is not many rhyming words in it.

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 story is the little girl with auburn hair
- The reader can relate to the character in the sense of curiosity. Just like the
main character is curious about recycling, other children are curious about this
and much more.
- Supporting characters in the story include Mr. Jones, her brother, her
classmates, and her parents.

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

- The little girl saw her teacher putting cans, bottles, and papers in a box by the
gate. She was curious about this and asked the teacher. He introduced
recycling to her and taught it as school. Then they took a field trip to the
recycling center where she learned more about recycling. Now, her and her
family recycle almost everything.

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

Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)
 - The book takes place in the main characters house, her classroom, and then in
the recycling center.
- The main message of this book is that there are many things that can be
recycled to cut down on environmental damage and waste. It is encouraged to
take action and start recycling bottles, cans, paper, etc.

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

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

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: Lines are used for detail going I every direction, especially in hair. Lines in these
illustrations do not show movement.
Shapes: Shapes are curved which show nature made objects as opposed to man
made objects.
Color: Colors in these illustrations are most pastel than anything. Even when the
colors are dark, they still look pastel because they are light.
Texture: Texture in illustrations look smooth. It all looks like digital art so there is no
other texture that shines through the pages.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
- The background of the pages is all white. There is very little white space
though. Most of the pages are covered in illustrations and text. In some pages,
there are thin red or black borders.

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.” When being
taught about recycling, the main character forms this conclusion that recycling
helps the environment. It is better for our planet and helps reduce waste. She
was using logical thinking based off of what was told to her.

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:
- “school age children learn to complete tasks over extended periods.” After
being introduced with recycling, the main character took that information home
with her. Overtime, she got so much better at recycling and would recycle just
about anything.

Emotional Development:
Identify the age: 1-2 years
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose:
- “Begins to evaluate behaviors based on external standards.” In the book, the
main character realizes that her teacher is recycling. This appears to make him
happy, and she decides to join along to help reduce waste.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3 highly recommend

Why?
- This is a good book that teachers’ children to recycle. It is a vital point to help
maintain our environment and keep breathing in healthy air. Not only is the
message great, but the illustrations are as well. So much color and this book lifts
ones spirits while conveying a great message.