Friday, July 10, 2015

Evaluative Criteria on Informational Books


Frogs by Nic Bishop
 

Design
            Nic Bishop uses his photography skills for the pictures in his books. The pictures in the book “Frogs” are very colorful and crystal clear which is essential to readers who don’t have the opportunity to see and touch such animals in real life. The author also helps the pictures come to life by stating facts about the animal in different but complimenting colors and fonts that make the book very enjoyable to read.

Style
            The way the author describes the pictures of the frogs is done in a way where he is not just throwing facts but describing all the actions that he perhaps saw when we was photographing the animals. He also states these facts in very kid friendly vocabulary that allows younger readers to enjoy.

Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell
 

Design
            The design of the book “Me…Jane” by Patrick McDonell looks more like a children’s book about a girl and jungle animals. It is not until you continue reading the story that you see some more real life illustrations such as Jane’s drawings of animals. Even then the reader could think they are a different drawing style from the author. It is not until we reach the end of the story that we see a real picture of Jane and read a little bit about her as a person and the contributions she’s made as well as a personal message from Jane Goodall herself. This type of design lends itself for younger readers to enjoy the book without it being just a biography of Jane Goodall.

Style
            The style of writing in this book started off as a regular children’s story. It envelops the reader into this little girl’s curious adventures and daydreams and ends with the pleasing surprise of Jane’s dream of living and helping animals coming true.

Primates by Jim Ottaviani & Maris Wicks
 

Design
            The layout of the story Primates by Ottaviani and Wicks is in a very child friendly way. It is presented like a comic book in the matter of comic squares and illustrated onomatopoeia. The illustrations within the book are very colorful but easy on the eyes, making the pictures very pleasing to look at.

Accuracy
            The accuracy of “Primates” is a bit debatable due to it being loosely based on Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas. The story was meant to describe the adventures these extraordinary women took part in to advocate for primates in a comical yet respectful way. The book does include a short bibliography of reliable sources that were used to include facts in the story.

It’s So Amazing by Robbie Harris
 

Accuracy
            “It’s So Amazing” is, as described on its front cover, a book about eggs, sperm, birth, babies and families. The narrators of the book are a bird and a bee which fit with the terms that are sometimes used by parents to have the sex talk with their children. Although there is a use of anthropomorphism with a talking bird and bee, the rest of the story uses correct terms for body parts and such. At the end of the book the authors include all the people who helped with the writing of the book which includes many professors, doctors and science teachers.

Organization
            The book includes a table of contents in the beginning which helps the reader navigate through topics they may be interested in or to see what other topics the book covers. The end of the book includes an index if the reader wishes to look for a specific term in the book. The index also includes bolded page numbers in which the reader can find the definition of a particular word used in the story.

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
 

Accuracy
            “Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni is based on Rosa Parks and what came forth from the day she refused to move from her seat in the bus. Although the story is based on a real person and a real event, the book does not cite any sources or credits that would demonstrate validity into some of the things discussed in the story. Although we all know that Rosa Parks does exist and what she did was a true event, the things that led up to and followed such events cannot be exactly proven true within the story. Rosa is not exactly an informational book per se but is a very good book to use to introduce the topic of Rosa Parks and her movement.

Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
 

Accuracy
            The author does a good job about depicting the work of a puppeteer by showing the picture of Tony Sarg right in the beginning of the book as well as attaching newspaper clippings from that time period. The most important is the added author’s note as well as bibliography and quote sources.

Design
            Although various types of illustrations are used throughout the story, they complement each other well. The use of different font types also helps the reader get a small taste of what things looked like in that time period.

How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg
 

Design
            The design of the book looks like something that would appeal readers that enjoy reading scary stories just by the title, choice of font and the picture of a skeleton physician on the front cover. Inside the book are only in black and white pictures with insects, tombstones and skulls on the pages borders which complements the book’s spookiness quite well.

Style
            The style used to write this book was indeed a spooky one. Right in the beginning of the book you can see a warning that states not to not read the book if you do not enjoy gore, accompanied by a skull and cross bones. The rest of the book proceeds to describe facts in graphic detail of how important people in history died and how they were buried.

We Are The Ship by Kadir Nelson
 

Organization
            The book “We Are The Ship” by Kadir Nelson is about the history of negro league baseball. The book uses the theme of baseball to separate the chapters of the book by innings, making the reader access certain parts of the story more readily. It also includes an index at the end of the book if in case the reader wants to find a specific person, team, place or event.

Accuracy
            This book successfully validates all the events in the story. It includes quotes and excerpts from baseball players that played during those times. It also includes a very lengthy but easy to read index that includes a bibliography, filmography, as well as endnotes for each chapter.

Hitler Youth by Susan Bartoletti
 

Accuracy
            Hitler Youth includes a very extensive bibliography of works used to write the story. The bibliography also includes firsthand accounts of people that helped the author such as people that translated German works for her. The book also includes a timeline of the historical events that happened in the course of when the story takes place as well as a foreword that introduces the people in the story (with pictures) and an epilogue that states what happened to those people from the story. The book’s pictures mostly come from the Library of Congress as well as from museums making this a book with highly accurate information.

Organization
            The book includes a table of contents that highlights the topics that will be discussed in the story. The book also includes an index so the reader that find specific topics or terms. The index includes bold page numbers that indicate that specific page contains photographs.

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