Fiction Evaluation Form

Your Name: Alisha Reid Book Title: The Talking Vegetables

Author: Won-Ldy Paye & Margaret H. Lippert Illustrator: Julie Paschkis

Genre: Folklore Publisher/Year: Henry Holt and Company 2006

EVALUATE THE BOOK USING THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS

STYLE and Language: Explain the language used word choices, sentence length, dialogue, rhythm, rhyme.
Explain unexpected insights or interesting information the reader learns from the story. Give examples form
the book
Word Choices: Onomatopoeia. Bam, Bam Bam.
Sentence Length: Varies from short sentences like, Spider yawned,
to longer sentences like, A month later, villagers knocked on Spiders door
again.
Dialogue: Its time to weed the farm, they answered.
I didnt help before, and Im not helping now! Spider screamed.
Rhythm: Normal everyday talking rhythm. All day the villagers pulled weeds. Their knees hurt, their
backs ached, and their arms were sore.
Rhyme: There is no rhyming in this story.

The readers learn that being greedy will end up not helping them in the long run. Spider decides not
to help his village plant seeds or harvest crops. At the end when he decides that he wants to eat
something other than his rice, the crops deny him the opportunity. If he was not selfish or lazy to
begin with, and helped his village, then he could have had any of the food he wanted.

CHARACTER Who is the main character? Explain the characters personality traits. How can the reader
relate to the character, become involved in the story?
Who are the supporting characters? Give examples of both.
The main character is a selfish lazy spider who does not want to help his village plant seeds or
harvest crops. Go away, said Spider, Im tired.
The supporting characters are the villagers which are other animals, and the crops who talk to
spider. But we need you, they said. If everyone helps, there will be plenty of vegetables for
all of us.
The tomato said, Why do you think you can pick me when you didnt come to clear the land
or plant my seeds or pull my weeds? Get out of here!
A young reader can relate because they have probably been selfish or lazy at some point.
Doing chores is something that can be done together with siblings or class mates. If we do not
help our friends or siblings, then we dont get to partake in the benefits. In class when the
children are done playing, they must clean up after themselves or they will not get to play
with those toys anymore. Also
 1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot

1. The village asks Spider to help plant seeds.

2. Spider says he is too tired.
3. The village plants seeds without Spider.
4. The village asks Spider to help weed the farm.
5. Spider refuses to help.
6. The village weeds the farm without Spider.
7. The village harvested the crops.
8. Spider began to get hungry and wants something other than rice.
9. Spider goes to pick crops.
10. The crops will not let Spider pick them.
11. Spider eats plain rice for dinner.

2. SETTING Explain the place and time of the book.

THEME- What is the storys theme or lesson?

Setting: At Spiders home and on the farm.

Theme: Selfishness and laziness. The Spider is only concerned with himself and ends up not
benefiting from it.

ILLUSTRATION Analyze the illustrations in the book (see Chapter 4) with the categories below: Choose a 2-
page spread in the book to answer the following:
What Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, nave, cartoon art)?
Cartoon art.
Media (paints, oils watercolors, pencil, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk)
Bright water colors.

Visual elements:
Line: Dark bold line for pumpkins nose.
Shapes: Circles for eyes and pupils on pumpkin and spider. Pumpkin shape, spider shape.
Color: Orange for the pumpkin, black for his nose, yellow for his eyes and mouth. Black spider with white eyes, Green
leaf, blue and read bird. Brown background.
Texture: Shadow on the pumpkin and different oranges make it appear 3d.

Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show that text does not
explain?

The text tells the more in-depth story and the illustrations just support it. The text tells what the
spider and the pumpkin are saying, and the art just shows a distraught pumpkin with a spider on his
head. The pumpkin is large and takes up the two-page spread with the words in the upper left-hand
and upper right-hand corner.
Describe the Page design: the borders, use of white/dark space, text placement & size, font, placement of illustrations:
There are no borders on this page but both pages are full of color. The brown background reaches
the edge of the pages. The words are in white in the upper left-hand and upper right-hand corners.
The pumpkin takes up about of the pages.
 3. CHILD DEVELOPMENT THEORIES CHOOSE 2 of theories below and evaluate the book according to the
developmental theories. (How the book fits the developmental stage and age?)

PIAGET-COGNITIVE-INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage: Concrete Operational and the age 7-11.

Explain the cognitive development from the stage: Logical thinking with concrete objects and
personal experience.

Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage:
Able to identify with the spider and realize that selfishness really does not benefit us.
ERIKSON PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage ______Industry versus Inferiority and the age School age.
Explain the social development for this stage:
Feels increased influence from teachers and peers at school.
Give examples from the book that support the social development of this stage:
Helping others can benefit the class. If Spider were to help the village then they would not have had
to work so hard and he would have had food to eat.
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Identify the Age ____7-11
Explain the emotional development at this age:
Inner standards become part of self-conscious emotions for right actions.
Give examples from the book to illustrate the emotional development of this age:
Spider did not care if he helped his friends or not and everyone suffered because of it.

4. Overall Rating of the book (3 highest - 1 lowest) 3 1 2 3

Comments: (Support your overall rating) This story teaches a good lesson and helps children to see
how being selfish can hurt others and themselves.