Fiction Evaluation Form

(Picture Books, Folklore, Modern Fantasy, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Multicultural Books)

Your Name: Karla Castro Book Title: This is not my hat

Author: Jon Klassen Illustrator: Jon Klassen

Genre: Fiction Picture Book Publisher/Year: October 9, 2012 Candlewick Press

https://youtu.be/94xBLFPY124

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 for each one:

Word choice: The word choice is very simple and easy to understand
Sentence length: Sentence length is very short with about 2-4 sentences per page
Dialogue: There is no dialogue
Rhythm: The rhythm is very medium paced.
Rhyme: There is no rhyme in this story
Insights/interesting information: This story won the Caldecott Medal which was granted for the most
distinguished American picture book for children.

CHARACTER – Who is the main character? Explain the character’s personality traits. How can the reader
relate to the character, become involved in the story?
Who are the supporting characters? Give examples of each from the book.

Main character: Small fish

Personality traits: egocentric, arrogant
How reader can relate to main character: There will be times that children take thing from other people
without asking and stating that it is there
Supporting characters: Big fish

1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot

 In this story little fish states that the hat that he has on is not his and that he took it from this
big fish. He continues to state how confident he is that the big fish will not wake up and even
if he does, he will not notice the hat is gone or care that it is gone. Little fish continues to say
that he is confident that Big fish will never find him and the hat. At the end of the story all of
what little fish said turned out to be the opposite and big fish found him. In the end we see
that big fish has his hat but we do not see little fish. Was he eaten?
 2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book.
THEME- What is the story’s theme or lesson?

Setting: Underwater
Theme: Central Theme is stealing

ILLUSTRATION –Analyze the illustrations in the book (see Chapter 4 for details on the categories below.)
Choose a 2-page spread in the book to answer the following:
What Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)?
 This style is cartoon art

Illustration and Text: explain how illustration and text combined to tell the story.
Then, explain what illustrations show that text does not explain?
The illustrations show the opposite of what little fish is saying. For example when little fish says
“big fish probably wont wake up for a long time” it shows big fish awake. When little fish says that
“big fish wont notice that it is gone” it shows big fish look at the top of his head noticing that it is
gone.

Page design --Describe:

The Borders There are no boarder on the page
Use of white/dark space: there is white space that is used in order for the text to be placed on, such as a whole blank page
Text placemen: text is placed on a blank page and the page next to it is the illustration
Font size: The font size is fairly medium to large
Placement of illustrations: the illustrations take a whole page

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 preoperational stage and the age 2-7 years old
Explain ONE cognitive development trait from the stage:
 During this stage children are egocentric not able to take the point of view of other people
Give examples from the book show how the book fits that trait and cognitive stage:
 In this story little fish does not take the point of view of big fish on how he feels when he stole
his hat. Along with that little fish says that big fish will not miss his hat or even know that it is
gone.

ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage initiative vs. guilt and the age 3-5 years old
Explain ONE social development trait for this stage:
 Children begin to exercise more control over others and themselves
Give examples from the book that support that social development trait and of this stage:
 Little fish says to himself that he is confident that he will not get caught and is confident that
the hat will be his in the end.