Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Joanna Simon

Book Title: The Hello, Goodbye Window
Author: Juster Norton
Genre: Children’s Literature, Picture book, Fiction
Illustrator: Chris Raschka
Publisher/Year: 2005, Michael Di Capua Book
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 text provided by the author is simple and short including no rhyme keeping the
dialogue between the characters where the girl is talking to the reader. The little girl
talks to the reader about how her day goes while staying at her grandparent’s house
before her parents pick her up.
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 main character is the little girl.
The supporting character is the grandparents.
As the reader, I relate to the little girl who talks to the audience talking about her daily
experiences. Children are excited to talk about their daily day with enthusiasm for
exploring the world around them. The little girl talks about how she was once bathed
in the sink where I believed we all were once in her position when we were little kids.
Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)
The little girl talks about her daily experiences while staying with her grandparents
while her parents go to work. She talks to the reader explaining to us how much fun
she is having and what she is doing throughout the day. There are times when she sits
at the “Goodbye window” where she imagines different scenarios. At the end of the
book, she envisions herself being an adult with a big house like her grandparents.
Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)
Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)
The setting takes place in the little girl’s grandparents in a kitchen.
The theme in the book is having a lovely relationship with your grandparents through
a goodbye window she enjoys looking through where she is able to expand her special
care for her grandparent’s window.
Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2
points)
Cartoon art, realism, surrealism, impressionism
Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk):
(2 points)
Crayons, pen
Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the
illustrations: (3)
Line: straight, swirl, wavy
Shapes: Circles, Squares, ovals, triangles
Color: Green, Yellow
Texture: smooth
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and
all pages the same or different). (3)
Most of the illustration takes up half of the book where the text is located in different
areas of the book.

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 Trust vs. Mistrust and the age infancy
Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the
book to support your choice:
Parents are in charge of providing care and control the environment. Children receive
positive care meeting the needs of their caregivers. The little girl experiences a safe
environment in her grandparent’s house while her parents are working. Her parents
make sure she is in a safe and warm environment.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3

Why?
I enjoyed listening to the book where the author illustrates the entire book as if a child
were to create a book talking about their daily life living with their grandparents while
their parents are at work. The book brings back childhood memories from the dialogue
through the child-like art illustrations.