Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Michelle Valerio

Book Title: Dreamers

Author: Yuyi Morales

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Illustrator: Yuyi Morales

Publisher/Year: Penguin Random House/ 2018

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)

Yuyi Morales is an astonishing artist that shines through in every aspect of this book.

The language she uses is intentional, just as she carefully selects colors when

painting. Her sentence structure is varied as she adjusts to what is best for the poetic

tone of each page. We see that here where she writes, “thousands and thousands of

steps, we took around this land, until the date we found…” these are longer as

opposed to the next page where she continues, “a place we had never seen before.

Suspicious. Improbable.” where some sentences are a single word. In addition to this
is her uncommon vocabulary such as suspicious and improbable, which helps expand

the vocabulary of children by exposing them to these unique words.

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 this story is Yuyi herself, as she weaves an artistic

interpretation of her personal experience. The supporting characters are her infant

son and the library employees. Her son is her partner as she explores her new world

and the employees usher her into her new literary life. Yuyi’s story is very relatable for

young children as they encounter an unknown world. As Yuyi did, they learn through

trial and error and have difficulty communicating with adults at times.

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

Yuyi and her son travel from Mexico to America for the first time. Cultural differences

and language barriers make their new world difficult. One day while exploring they

discover a magical place called the library. There she is finally at home. In that sacred

space, she feeds her passion as she transitions from reader to author.
Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

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

This book is set in America during the 1990s. 1994 is Yuyi first crossed the border to

America. The message of this story is to keep exploring and follow your passions,

even when facing the scary unknown.

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 an intricate entanglement of impressionist,

surrealism, and cartoon. We see the impressionist in the extremely distorted

perspectives. Then we see surrealism in the dream-like scenes, like when she and

her baby first meet. Finally, we see aspects of cartoon in the details of the faces.

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

acrylic, chalk): (2 points)

Acrylic, pencils, and pens.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in
the illustrations: (3)
Line: Long curved lines of their bodies as they outstretch towards each other express

the excitement.

Shapes: All of the people in the library have very round and curved bodies that

represent safety while the officer who scolds them playing in the lake has a seemingly

thinner build.

Color: The bright colors spewing from the librarian as she hands Yuyi’s son his first

card represents the joy of reading.

Texture: The lines on the edges of the books creates the texture of the pages.

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

dark space and all pages the same or different). (3)
The page design is very interesting as the concept of illustrations and text blend. At

times the text becomes part of the art. For instance, the clouds spelling “say

something”, “what?”, and “speak english”. Yuyi takes great care in placing her text in

ways that emphasize its impact. At times single words dot that page. The overall

layout of this book lends itself to its passion for storybooks.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social
Emotional to describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
Emotional Development

Identify the age: 3-6 Years Old

Explain the social development for this age and how the book
relates to the emotional level you chose:
At this age, children are developing a higher capacity for empathy. They are also

drawing more connections between actions and reactions. Cause and effect are

begging to make more sense. Expanding conversational skills are allowing for greater

dialogue about the fallout from strong emotions. This book relates to this stage by

allowing for children to have empathy for the difficulties Yuyi face as she tries to make

sense of the strang world she finds herself with.

Your rating of the book: 3

Why?

Yuyi’s book is a stunning representation of an immigrant experience and it's a great

opportunity to explore this topic in a child-friendly way. Exposing our children to these

topics early helps create empathetic caring adults in our community when they grow

up.