Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Michelle Valerio

Book Title: Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

Author: Kevin Noble Millard

Genre: Multicultural

Illustrator: Juana Martinez-Neal

Publisher/Year: Roaring Brook Press/2019

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)

Fry Bread has a poetic aspect to it. As you’re reading you can feel that Mr. Millard's

words have been carefully selected. His sentences are short and capture his

tenderness for this cultural tradition. We see an example of this when he writes, “Fry

Bread is sound. The skillet clangs on the stove. The Fire blazes from below. Drop the

dough in the skillet. The bubbles sizzle and pop.” Each page starts with the same

format, “Fry Bread is…”, this makes a cohesive experience and easily allows young
readers to understand the importance the dish has among native families.

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 the Fry Bread! Fry Bread is the thread that ties the whole book

together. The entire story is based on explaining how beloved Fry Bread is. The

supporting characters in this book are the Native family we see preparing and

enjoying Fry Bread. Without the Fry Bread, we would have no story to tell and without

the Native Family, we would have no way to experience the joy of Fry Bread.

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

A Joyous Grandmother prepares Fry Bread with her excited grandchildren. They mix

the dough, fry it, and adorn it with tons of tasty toppings. The rest of the family joins

them as they sit down for a family meal. The book goes on to highlight important

connections between Fry Bread and native history, as well as, the future of native

traditions.

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 this book is the home of the Native family. It takes place in modern

times as the elder members of the family reflect on the past tribulations their people

faced. The main message of the book is that our traditions have deep connections to

our heritage and should be cherished.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories

Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon

art)? (2 points)
The style of these illustrations is cartoon. The illustrator uses mostly realistic

proportions with cartoonish aspects. The soft curves of the families bodies are an

example of this.

Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons,

acrylic, chalk): (2 points)

Watercolors, pencils, and pens.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in
the illustrations: (3)

Line: The squiggly lines of one of the children’s hairs shows its texture.
Shapes: The Soft round shapes of the childrens’ bodies and the more angular

aspects of their clothing/glasses.

Color: The color palette of this book is soft and muted. On the page where they’re

mixing the illustrator show the dough as one shade. When the children are enjoying

the cooked pieces she has added lots of different hues to express the golden crust.

Texture: The child with the large curly hair also has lines on his eyebrows giving

them a bushy texture.

Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and

dark space and all pages the same or different). (3)
This book makes use of large images that span both pages. It allows for lots of detail

and makes you feel welcomed in the family’s home. The format of the text adds to its

poetic flow. The first line is always a different color from the rest of the text. This

serves as a heading for each aspect of Fry Bread we explore.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social

Emotional to describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
Piaget:

Pre-operational: 2-7

At this stage, children are forming schemes as they accommodate new

information. They are using language and images to make sense of their

world as they process all this new information. This story connects to this

theory because of its careful selection of words. Utilizing intentional

vocabulary assists children in organizing the information being presented.

Your rating of the book: 3

Why?

This book is a beautiful love letter to a cultural tradition. It makes you fall in love with

the dish and then offers you the recipe at the end so you can experience it for

yourself. It's a great opportunity to talk about traditions and how people all have

different ones.