Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Angie Lopez-Garcia

Book Title: City Mouse, Country Mouse
Author: Maggie Rudy
Genre: Folklore/Picture Books
Illustrator: Maggie Rudy
Publisher/Year: Henry Holt (2017)
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 sentences are a bit longer and complex in this story, so I would definitely say it’s
a book for older kids if they’re reading independently. With that being said, there is a
good use of higher-level vocabulary. Some words include, “pounced”, “gaped”,
“scent”, “longed”, and “shriveled”. When children first hear those words, they might
not know what they mean, but using context clues, they are able to try and
understand their meaning.
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?
Tansy and William are both the main characters of the book. The are no supporting
characters. Readers can relate to the characters because even though Tansy and
William have different preferences, it didn’t stop them from being friends.
Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)
Two mice that each live in different areas decide to embark on a journey to each
other’s hometowns. The country mouse visits the city, and the city mouse visits the
country. Once they arrive at the different locations, they each decide they like their
own hometowns better, so they return home. They then begin to miss each other
and decide to head towards one another again, deciding to settle between both the
country and city so they could live together without having home too far away.
Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)
The story begins during the summer, both in the country and in the city. Eventually it
seems like the story progresses through the seasons.
Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)
The main message that I took from this story is that you don’t have to conform to
other people’s likes. You can also disagree with someone’s preference without being
mean about it, just like the mice did.
Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2
points)
The style used in this story is realism and it shows how the city looks compared to the
country.
Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk):
(2 points)
The media used in this story are prop real-life items. Some items appear to have been
made using recycled items. Clay might also have been used for creating certain items.
Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: Lines are used to not only create texture for certain items, but certain dialogue
is also curved when trying to convey the loudness of the words being said.
Shapes: There are a variety of shapes used throughout. They’re displayed through the
prop items and used as frames of an image.
Color: There is lots of color used throughout the book and because the story is based
on real places, they are colors seen in everyday life.
Texture: Texture is shown with all of the items used such as the fake grass and the
ridges on the buildings.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space, and
all pages the same or different). (3)
The pages are very used up with illustrations. Some images take two pages to display
its entirety. There are some pages where the pictures are displayed within a square
with a white border surrounding it to allow for the words of the story.

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

describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)
Piaget:
Name the stage_Pre-Operational_ and the age_2-7 years_
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:

Understands world through language and mental images. In this story, they are both
showing and describing the differences between the city and the country. With
describing words of each place, children are able to make connections between what
makes each location different. For example, the city is loud and busy while the country
is quiet and calm.

Erickson:
Name the stage_____________________ and the age_______________________
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:

Emotional Development:
Identify the age: _________________________
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose:

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: _ 3__

Why?

I would rate this book a 3 because it’s great for learning stronger descriptive words
and learning differences between places.