Fiction Evaluation Form

Your Name: Alisha Reid Book Title: Goodnight Moon

Author: Margaret Wise Brown Illustrator: Clement Hurd

Genre: Picture Books Publisher/Year: 1947

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

Rhyme. Saying goodnight to inanimate objects. Saying goodnight to a room. Saying goodnight to
noises. Repetition. And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush.

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 little boy bunny who is in bed getting ready to sleep. He is fighting sleep and
is looking around his room curiously at everything while his mom sits close by telling him to hush.
That is where he becomes relatable because most small children do not fall asleep easily and do not
want to go to bed. The supporting characters are the little bunnys mom and all the items around
his room that he can see from his bed. And goodnight to the old lady whispering hush.

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

1. Boy bunny is in bed with the lights on.

2. He tells everything in his room goodnight.
3. It gets darker.
4. He tells everything in his room goodnight again.
5. He falls asleep and the lights are off.

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

 THEME- What is the storys theme or lesson?

Setting: In a great green little boys room late at night.

Theme: Innocence. The little boy bunny is not concerned about anything except the things in or
around his own home.

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, small ink in black and white.

Visual elements:
Line: outlines add texture and depth and stripes on the curtains.
Shapes: Ovals, rectangles, circles, triangles, squares.
Color: Bright red to make certain things stand out, green room, yellow, blue, black and white.
Texture: Basket, fuzzy rug, fluffy pillow, soft kittens.

Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show that text does not
explain?
The text only has two words but the illustrations show the whole story. The little boy is lying in bed
while his kittens play on the floor next to him and his mom is knitting. The fire is burning and a
bowl of leftover food sits on a nearby table. He is settling in for the night, but the only words on the
page say, Goodnight Room.

Describe the Page design: the borders, use of white/dark space, text placement & size, font, placement of illustrations:

The focus is on the illustration. The text is above the picture in the upper left-hand corner inside of
a purple bubble. There are no borders, because night stands and balloons are illustrated at the ends
of the pages. It is easy to read but there is so much more going on in the picture, that it tells the
whole story.
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 and the age 2-7 years.
Explain the cognitive development from the stage: Language and vocabulary are developing rapidly.

Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage:
Rhyming, repetition, small sentences. Goodnight room.

ERIKSON PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Name the stage Autonomy Verses Shame-doubt and the age: toddlerhood.

Explain the social development for this stage: Main task is to develop a sense of autonomy by
exploring surroundings without guilt for accidents/mistakes.
Give examples from the book that support the social development of this stage:
The little boy is exploring his surroundings and turning around and looking at all of the things in his
room before he falls asleep.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Identify the Age ______3-6 years ____________________________
Explain the emotional development at this age: Language skills combined with behavior and
cognitive/thinking strategies help create emotional self- regulation.

Give examples from the book to illustrate the emotional development of this age:
The mom is whispering hush and the little boy settles down and falls asleep.

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

Comments: (Support your overall rating) Goodnight moon is simple but keeps young children
entertained while teaching rhythm, rhyme, and vocabulary.