Fiction Evaluation Form

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

Your Name: Karla Castro Book Title: The Pout-Pout Fish

Author: Deborah Diesen Illustrator: Dan Hanna

Genre: Fiction Picture Books Publisher/Year: 2008

https://youtu.be/oqupxANpqIE

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: This book contains many synonyms for frown (pout, crosstown frown, scaly
scowl, mope, hulky-bulky sulking”
Sentence length: Each sentence is about medium length with lots of adjectives. Each page
only has about 4 sentences.
Dialogue: Throughout the book there is dialogue between pout-pout fish and other sea
creatures. The other animals are letting pout-pout fish that he should smile
Rhythm: The book has a musical rhythm with its presentations, “I’m a pout-pout fish with a
pout-pout face, so I spread my dreary-wearies all over the place”
Rhyme: There are sentence that Rhyme in this book. “With a wide winning grin, and a pearl
of advice for her pal to take in”

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: the main character is the pout-pout fish

Personality traits: Gloomy, Dreary
How reader can relate to main character: The reader can relate to the pout-pout fish
because sometime there are times where the reader may feel gloomy and does not want to
smile.
Supporting characters: There are many other sea animals that try to make pout-pout fish
smile (clam, jellyfish, squid, octopus)

1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot
 The book follows pout-pout fish, a fish that a grin of his face everywhere he goes, and
 it does not get better. Sea creature around him try to make him smile but pout-pout
fish says nothing will help. That is until shimmery fish comes along and gives pout-
pout fish a kiss. The kiss that pout-pout fish receives makes his frown upside down
and he feels much better and smiles.

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

THEME- What is the story’s theme or lesson?

Setting: In the ocean, the sea floor

Theme: Happiness, Acceptance

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)?
 Cartoon art style

Illustration and Text: explain how illustration and text combined to tell the story.
Then, explain what illustrations show that text does not explain?
 The text explains what animal is there trying to cheer up pout-pout fish. The
illustrations give a visual representation of what the text is describing.

Page design --Describe:

The Borders: There are white boarders around certain pages. These pages include three
other illustrations in comic style. All the other pages the illustrations reach the edge of the
pages
Use of white/dark space: Throughout the book, there are use of blank spaces such as the
ocean or the ocean floor.
Text placemen: Text is placed in these black spaces, as said previously.
Font size: the text size is medium to large. The regular text describing the story is medium,
however, when the pout-pout fish says “Blub, blub, blub” the text is large.
Placement of illustrations: The illustrations take up all of the pages and only have black
spaces for the text placement.

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 not fully able to understand the point of view of other
people

Give examples from the book show how the book fits that trait and cognitive stage:
 Pout-pout fish does not fully understand why other sea creatures are trying to make
him smile

ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage Initiative vs. Guilt and the age 3-5 years old

Explain ONE social development trait for this stage:

 During this stage children face challenges with their emotions as they look toward
other such as their parents for confirmation on their emotions.
Give examples from the book that support that social development trait and of this stage:
 Pout-pout fish is very gloomy during this time. Until another fish comes along and
makes him feel better. They also make him know that its ok to feel this way at times.