Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Carmen Chavez

Book Title: Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos
Author: Stephanie Roth Sisson
Genre: Biography
Illustrator: Stephanie Roth Sisson
Publisher/Year: Roaring Book Press, 2014
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 for this book was very much chronological order. There were
words used that would be expected when telling a story where chronological
order is a vital part of it. Any dialogue presented in the story was illustrated in
speech bubbles as opposed to being a part of the text. Sentence length used in
the story was medium to long. There was a lot of factual information being
used in the story, so it made sense to have long sentences.

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 Carl Sagan.
- The reader can relate to the character in the way that he had a dream career as
a child. There are many young children that are amused with the idea of
becoming a teacher, doctor, or astronaut. They relate to Carl Sagan in the way
that he was passionate about the solar system and came to be a great scientist.
- The supporting in the story were just the people around him that encouraged
his dreams and ideas. For ex., his parents when he was a child, and his
colleagues when he became a scientist.

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

- The plot o f this story is that young Carl Sagan was infatuated with the world
around him and stars. This young boy grew up to become Dr. Carl Sagan, a
scientist.
Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)
Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)
- For some part of the book, the setting was in Carl Sagan’s hometown during
the early 1940s. As time passed, illustrations took place at a later time in Carl
Sagan’s workspace.
- The main message of this book is that if you can dream it, you can do it. Carl
Sagan had hopes of thoroughly understanding the world around him, especially
stars. He became a great scientist that would study many things about the
world including the universe outside of the planet.

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

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

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: Lines in the illustrations were used more as detail as opposed to tell movement.
Lines are twisted and turned many ways to form objects and details.
Shapes: Shapes presented in this story were very much angular shapes as well as
curved shapes. There are a lot of human made objects but much more nature made
objects.
Color: There are numerous colors in these illustrations. Warm colors as well as cold
colors. There are so many dark colors used due to the content of the story. The
universe is dark but made up of beautiful stars and planets made up of numerous
colors.
Texture: Texture shown in the illustrations are drawn on. There is nothing that would
let us know that it was initially made on another surface before being transferred
onto the page.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
- The page designs in this book are very interesting. There is one page that has a
flap and opens up, revealing a whole other page. There are some pages that
are designed so that the reader holds the book vertical as opposed to
horizontal. There is so much detail included into every illustration and page
 design. That being said, there is very little white blank spots.

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 Formal Operational and the age 12 years onward
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:
- “Understands world through hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning.”
This fits in perfectly with the book because Carl Sagan went deep into his
research as a child and was reading factual books about stars. This is where he
understood the world around him based off scientific reasoning provided by
trusted scientists.

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:
- “Learn to master new skills: reading, school subjects, physical skills.” When
young Carl Sagan went to the library, he discovered books that informed him
about the stars. After his first encounter, he learned to research informational
books about stars all on his own.

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:
- “Language improvement, behavior and cognitive strategies help create
emotional self-regulation.” As Carl Sagan further gains knowledge, his language
improves drastically due to all of the information that he is attaining. This would
eventually come to play in his social development. He is able to discuss this
topic thoroughly with another person that may be interested in the same thing.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3 Highly recommend

Why?
- I absolutely loved this book. Not only was it a great educational book about Carl
Sagan, but it also taught us about the universe. I love the idea of stars and
planets. It is a great thing to learn about and discover. The illustrations in the
book were very good and detailed accordingly. Though this book was a
biography, it greatly made a story out of it as opposed to just stating facts. It
made the book child friendly and a great addition to a preschool library.