Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Rachele Tolentino

Book Title: Country Mouse and the City Mouse
Author: Eric Blair
Genre: Folklore/ Fable
Illustrator: Dianne Silverman
Publisher/Year: Picture Window Books (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)
“The city mouse had a big house. He offered a feast of cheese, fruit, and figs,” (Blair
2015). This quote demonstrates descriptive words that are easy to understand and
picture for young readers. The word choice used by the author is simple but direct
and easy for young readers to comprehend. Dialogue is minimal throughout the book
but is used in essential parts of the book where the mice communicate back and
forth. The sentences are short. For example, “The mice began to eat. But then people
came to clear the plates. Again, the mice dashed to hide.” This quote demonstrates
the short sentence length that consists of about 5-8 words per sentence. The
unexpected insights in the book are talking mice, friendship, and class differences.

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 country mouse and the city mouse were good friends. One day, the country
mouse invited the city mouse to dinner,” (Blair 2015). This quote shows the first
sentences of the book establishing the main characters to be country mouse and city
mouse. Many readers can relate to these characters because of their personality
traits – humble or ungracious. For example, Blair writes, “He did not like the simple
dinner. He was used to eating fancy food.” Many children grow up being told by their
parents to be grateful of the thigs they have especially food, so many kids can relate
to this scene of the book or disagree with it and empathize with country mouse.
Depending on who is reading the book they can also relate to living in the country or
the city.

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

The country mouse invited the city mouse to dinner at his place. After city mouse ate,
he did not appreciate the simple dinner and invited country mouse back to his place
in the city. After viewing the huge house and feast in front of them at city mouse’s
place, they began to eat but were interrupted by a cat and humans. Country mouse
decided this lifestyle was not for him and left.

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

Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)
This story takes place in the country and in the city. Both take place in both mice
homes. The main message children can take away from this book is the last quote
country mice tells city mouse, “Thank you,’ said the country mouse. ‘But I am going
home. I would rather live a simple life in peace than a rich life in fear.” This quote
shows humility from country mouse after country mouse showed uninterest in
country’s mouse lifestyle and dinner. Children can learn that your surroundings
should not be more important than your character.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2
points)
The illustration style is a mix between realism and cartoon style. The characters are
illustrated in a stand-up position and the faces look realistic to real life mice, but
they’re still cartoons.
Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk):
(2 points)
The illustrations look hand-drawn with markers and painted with water color.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: The lines used are round. For example, the mice have round features to focus
on their cartoon-like appearance. They create a child-like appearance.
Shapes: The shapes are round as well but if we zoom into country mouse face it is
more “raggedy” probably to emphasize a hard-working life. On the contrary, city
mouse face is smoother and rounder with a pointy nose.
Color: The colors are vibrant but muted with uses of mustard yellow or muddy green.
They emphasize the country colors with warm towns and city colors with beige tones.
Texture: Texture is shown constantly throughout the illustrations as the watercolor
strokes show the fur of the mice or the shine of a fork.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
The text is consistently found throughout the book at the top of the page and the
illustrations are below. The page layout is basic and consistent. White spaces are
used only in the text area. The pages are the same throughout the book which is easy
for a first time reader.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social Emotional to

describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
Erickson:
Name the stage __Initiative vs guilt__ and the age______3-4 (preschool)____
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:

At this stage, children learn to get involved in pretend play and encourage
imagination. They also begin to ask more questions and begin to do things on their
own. They learn the difference between reality and imagination. Behaviors are
analyzed to recognize what causes positive or negative results. This book would be
great for children at this age because their critical thinking causes children to
recognize right from wrong. For example, when city mouse mentions he did not like
the simple dinner, children at this age can recognize that as a negative reaction.
Another example is that books like these can encourage children to have a bigger
imagination as the characters are talking animals and this could be used in their
pretend play.
1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: ___3___

Why?
It is a very simple but effective book for young readers that would be easy to
understand. It is also engaging and full of illustrations. It is easy for students to
gravitate to.