Short Form (All Genres)

Your Name: Cristina Magallon

Title: Hansel and Gretel Author: James Marshall
Illustrator: James Marshall Publisher/Year: 1990
Genre: Modern Fantasy
Summarize the content of the book –
A. For Fiction Form Genres—Explain the characters, the setting, theme and plot of the
book.
Characters: Hansel and Gretel are smart kids and have a big brother-sister connection they really
seem to love each other and are always helping each other out of problems. Their dad who is a
woodcutter seem to really love his children but he always convinced by his wife (stepmother) to do
whatever she wants. The stepmother doesn’t like Hansel and Gretel to the point that gives his
husband the idea of abandoning them the forest. The witch is the antagonist of the story at first, she
is nice with the kids and then she tries to eat them but in the end, she is out smart by the kids.
Setting: It takes place in their house, forest and the witch house in the lap of various days and nights.
Theme: Don’t trust strangers, even if they are nice.
Plot: There was a famine in the land so Hansel and Gretel’s (stepmother) told this husband that they
needed to get rid of the kids because they ate too much and there wasn’t enough food for everybody
so they took them to the forest twice because the first time they found their way back but the second
time they couldn’t so they kept walking and eventually found a candy made house that was the home
of a witch she acted nice with them and later she took the boy too feed him and make him fat and the
girl had to go all the witch chores. Hansel would trick the witch and one day she got tired of waiting
for him to get fat so she decided to eat both, she asked Gretel to check the oven to see if it was hot
enough but it was a trap to cook her but she said, she didn’t know how and the witch had to show her
how and put her body in the oven and Gretel had the opportunity and kick her inside and she was the
one the was cooked. Finally, Hansel and Gretel got out of her house but not before they took her gold
and jewelry and went back home with his father he was happy to see them (and their stepmother had
died) so they lived happily ever after.
Explain how the book appeals to children, their interests, developmental levels, fun
illustrations etc. Give specific examples from the book:
Children can relate to this because they already have the idea that strangers can’t be trusted because
they don’t know what their intentions are so they need to be careful of who they trust. That is what
Gretel doesn’t at the begging she isn’t sure to trust the witch.
Developmental level: Initiative versus Guilt Age: Preschool
Child learns to do, to plan, to work at a task, to be active and on the move.
Fun illustrations can be such as the faces the stepmother of Hansel and Gretel always makes she
seems always mad and like she doesn’t like them. Another fun illustration would be the witch
appearances she has an orange and yellow puffy dress and a huge witch hat and in her hair, she has a
bunch of bows of different colors.
Rate the book 1 2 3

Explain your rating.

This book has a really good message that children need to learn, which is that they can’t
always trust every single person around them and that they need to be careful so they don’t
put themselves in danger with someone’s bad intentions.
Short Form (All Genres)
Your Name: Cristina Magallon
Title: Little Red Hen Author: Lyn Calder
Illustrator: Jeffrey Severn Publisher/Year: 1988
Genre: Modern Fantasy

Summarize the content of the book –

A. For Fiction Form Genres—Explain the characters, the setting, theme and plot of the
book.
Characters: The little red hen is hard working; smart and fair she tries to get her friends to
help her in the process of making bread but they don’t want to help because they want to
have fun and are lazy but when the little hen is gone they all know want to help her eat it
without helping her so she then decides that I wasn’t fair and she eats it alone.
Setting: In the little red hen garden, miller and her house.
Theme: Those that don’t make an effort to help, don’t deserve to enjoy the outcome.
Plot: The little red hen finds some grain of wheat she decides to plant it, then when it grows
so she decides to cut it and thresh it and took it to the miller for grinding all by herself
because every time she would ask the duck, cat and dog if they would help her and they
always said no. So, she then made dough to make bread and when it was all finished the
duck, cat and dog came because they wanted to eat some but this time the hen said she
didn’t need any help and ate it all by herself because they didn’t help her.

Explain how the book appeals to children, their interests, developmental levels, fun
illustrations etc. Give specific examples from the book:
Children can relate to this book because they at some point been either in the little red hen
places or in the duck, cat and dog. They either done all the work and somebody had wanted
to take advantage of that or they didn’t help out and want to be part of the credit.
Developmental level: Emotional Understanding Age: 7 to 12 months
Social referencing begins -observe another’s reactions to understand and to decide how to
respond.
Fun illustrations would include the duck, cat and dog playing cards, reading a book, napping
together and taking a bath together. Another fun illustration would be the last page where
the little red hen is eating the whole bread she made and the dog, cat, and duck are outside
the window with sad faces just watching her showing that there are consequences of not
wanting to help and just being lazy.

Rate the book 1 2 3

Explain your rating.

This is a really good book with a great moral for children to learn, like that working hard will
get you so far and that if you want something you have to work hard to get it and that being
lazy will get you nothing good.
Fiction Evaluation Form
(Picture Books, Folklore, Modern Fantasy, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Multicultural Books)

Your Name Cristina Magallon

Book Title: The Gingerbread Man
Author: Scholastic Illustrator: Karen Schmidt
Genre: Modern Fantasy Publisher/Year: 1985

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
This is a long story for young children because it has many long sentences with very simple words
medium size letters, it includes dialogue and it has rhyme and rhythm.
Example for language used, word choice and sentence length: Once upon a time there was a little old
woman and a little old man, and a little boy.
Example for dialogue, rhythm and rhyme: I have run away from a little boy, and an old man, and a
little old woman, and I can run away from you too.
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 both.
Main character: The gingerbread man he is very active and acts like a child with the bragging and
teasing, at the begging he doesn’t trust anybody but at the end he was tricked so he was naïve.
Supporting characters: are the little boy, old man and old woman, the farmers, the bear, the wolf and
the all had the same intentions they wanted to eat the gingerbread man.
Anyone reading the book can get involve because of the catchy sentences like it is “run, run, as fast as
you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!”
Children can relate to the gingerbread man because lying is a big part of the story and kids can relate
to that because they either have lie to someone or have been lied to even if it’s something as simple
like if you eat all your vegetables you can eat all the candy you want and when that happens they can
only eat one or two so it wasn’t everything they wanted.
1. PLOT: (Explains the major events in the story.) Summarize the plot
One day the little old woman made the boy a gingerbread man so when it was done the boy opened
the oven door and the gingerbread man ran out of the house as fast as he could and they couldn’t
catch him so he kept running, along the way he had to run away from some farmers, a bear, and a
wolf because they all wanted to eat him until he met with a fox and when the gingerbread man was
bragging about running away from all of them the fox said he couldn’t hear him made him get closer
to repeat everything he said and making the gingerbread man put down his guard and got himself
eaten by the fox who tricked him.
2. SETTING – Explain the place and time of the book.
THEME- What is the story’s theme or lesson?
Setting: At the begging of the story the setting was at the little boy, old woman and man house but
when the gingerbread man started running he passed a barn, a field and a river. The time was in the
day/afternoon.
Theme: We shouldn’t trust anyone without knowing their real intentions.
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, naïve, cartoon art)?
Realism
Media (paints, oils watercolors, pencil, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk) :
Color pencils
Visual elements:
Line: straight lines for the door frame, paper wall design, oven, outline of the clothes.
Shapes: circle for the chair, nose and buttons, rectangle for door, square for the oven.
Color: green, red, orange, blue, yellow, brown, purple, pink.
Texture: wooden, hair, body moving(running) and string coming out of the oven(smell).
Explain how illustration and text are combined to tell the story. What do illustrations show that text does not
explain?
The illustrations go exactly to what the text is saying, the gingerbread man running out the door but the thing
that the text doesn’t say are the faces the boy makes which he seems really worried about him leaving and the
gingerbread man face is excited but seem mischievous.
Describe the Page design: the borders, use of white/dark space, text placement & size, font, placement of illustrations:
Has borders a green margin, white space outside of the margin and the inside is fully illustrated, the
text is located at the top of the pages, medium size letters and the illustrations are in the whole page.
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: Sensorimotor and the age: Birth to 2 years
Explain the cognitive development from the stage: Develops stranger anxiety
Give examples from the book show how the book fits the cognitive stage: The gingerbread man runs
away from the boy, old man and woman, farmers, bear and wolf because he knew that they wanted to eat
him. He knew that the fox had bad intentions but he wanted the attention so badly that he didn’t think
twice that it could have been a trap from the fox saying he didn’t hear him to eat him which it was.
For example, the little boy said: “I want to see if the gingerbread man looks as good as he smells.” Which
makes the gingerbread man thinks that he has in big problems so he must run away to not be eaten.
ERIKSON – PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Name the stage: initiative verses guilt and the age: Preschool
Explain the social development for this stage: Child learns to do, to plan, to work at a task, to be
active and on the move.
Give examples from the book that support the social development of this stage: The gingerbread
man spends all the story running away from everybody that was trying to eat him so he was active
and on the move the whole story.
The gingerbread boy would say before running: “run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m
the gingerbread man!”
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Identify the Age __________________________________
Explain the emotional development at this age:
Give examples from the book to illustrate the emotional development of this age:
4. Overall Rating of the book (3 highest - 1 lowest) 1 2 3
Comments: (Support your overall rating)
I really like this book because it’s a classic tale every children has at least hear the “run, run as fast as
you can you can’t catch me” so they can quickly love it because it’s fun and has fun words but it also
has a great moral for kids which is that we can’t trust someone so easily.
 BOOK EXTENSION ACTIVITY - LESSON PLAN
Your Name: Cristina Magallon Genre of the Book: Modern Fantasy
Book Title: The Gingerbread man Illustrations: Karen Schmidt
Publisher: Scholastic Inc. Date: 1985
1. Pre-K/ CCSD K-2nd Grade Core Standards: 2nd grade
(2)4.1 demonstrate elements of art: line, shape, color, texture, value

2. Objectives:
SWBAT- design their own gingerbread man to express their creativity.

3. Materials/Equipment: Book- The Gingerbread man; Gingerbread design (handout),

crayons, color pencils or markers.

4. Teaching:
Interest hook: Has anyone eaten a gingerbread cookie?
Who do you think might want to eat a gingerbread cookie?
What animals you think might eat a cookie?

Today we are going to read a book about a crazy little cookie called- The Gingerbread man.
Okay, let’s begin the story. Listen carefully.

A. Reading the book

• Read the book and pause before turning the pages and ask if they know who might chase the
gingerbread man next.
• Ask if they think the gingerbread man will get eaten (before getting to the part where he runs
away.)
• Ask if a bear might eat the cookie- ask if they know what they really eat (grass, berries, fish.)
• Ask if a wolf might eat the cookie- ask if they know what they really eat (deer, moose,
rabbit.)
• Ask if a fox might eat the cookie- ask if they know what they really eat (birds, insects,
rabbits, fruits, berries.)
At the end of the story, ask the children: What part of the story did they liked? Share answers with
class.

B. Extension activity:
Today we are going to do an activity:
• Today in our activity we are going to play with shapes, lines and colors. Ask if they know
any shapes, lines and colors (have them give examples and write them on the board for
example: circle, square, blue, pink, etc.)
• In the paper that I will give you, there is a drawing of a gingerbread (boy or girl) using
crayons, colors or markers you get to decorate it.
• You can decorate it as you want but you must use shapes, lines and colors.

5. Closure:
• Have them share their drawing with the class.