Examine all parts, including the cover, end pages, dedication pages and any supplements at the back.

ENG 250 Children’s Literature: Picture book Analysis Paper Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Love this book personally, this is one of my favorite Children’s picture books, would love for the essay/analysis to be on this picture book Find a physical copy of a picture book (written for beginning readers) that strikes you. Aim for a book that is an original creation rather than a reproduction of Nickelodeon or Disney characters, as those are often poor examples of picture books. DO NOT choose a book that is on our assigned course reading list, and do NOT choose a Berenstain Bears book, since you already wrote about one of those. The goal of this project is to evaluate how successful your chosen picture book is at combining images and words to tell a story. Use the posted Canvas video lectures, which cover picture books and elements of design, to help guide your analysis. Take the time to go through your picture book carefully. Examine all parts, including the cover, end pages, dedication pages and any supplements at the back. Here are some questions, taken from Kiera Parrot’s “Evaluating Picture Books,” that can help guide your analysis. I do not expect you to address all these questions in your essay, as some will be more appropriate than others depending on the book you choose. The questions in BOLD should be included in your analysis. Look back over the lecture about The Art of Children’s Books: Design Lecture and use those ideas in this analysis. TEXT • Is the text effective and appropriate for the intended audience? • Does it flow well when read aloud? • Are there pleasing sounds, rhythms, patterns? • If it rhymes, does it do so effectively? • Do the pages turn in the right places? • How does the story unfold? Are there elements that allow readers to predict what might happen? • Is there a balance between predictability and surprise? • If the picture book has no text, how does the author make up for that? Is the story effective without it? ILLUSTRATION • What medium does the illustrator use? • How would you classify their technique: fair, good, distinguished, masterful? • How does the illustrator use visual elements? To what effect? • What colors are used and to what effect? • What visual element(s) are most dominant: color, line, shape? • How do the illustrations convey action? • Do the illustrations support the text? Do they expand it? • Does the illustrator make creative use of the physical object to tell the story? For example, the use of end papers, gutters, or orientation. TEXT & ILLUSTRATION TOGETHER • How are the text and pictures working together? • Do the illustrations extend the story, the characterization, the setting? Do they provide details not present in the text alone? • Does the placement of text on the page and/or the physical attributes of the text (such as typeface or size) contribute to the pacing or revelation of story? • Is there a natural progression of both art and words from one page to the next? Your essay should have a clear thesis that makes an argument about the success of the picture book. How you organize your essay is up to you, but think of the ideas you learned in ENG 111 and ENG 112 about topic sentences, transitions, introductions and conclusions, etc. This is a 200-level college English course, and your paper should reflect that. Give this first major paper the attention it deserves. General Format (AKA Pre-Requisites):  use MLA format for the paper: • typed and double-spaced, with a “boring” 12 point font—nothing fancy, nothing bold or italicized • 1” margins all around the page, with each paragraph indented Sources used in creating this assignment: Parrot, Kiera. “Evaluating Picture Books” SLJ Reviewer Central. 4 April 2015. https://contributors.slj.com/2015/04/evaluating-picture-books/ Tunnell, Michael O, et al. Children’s Literature, Briefly. Pearson, 2016. • first-page heading in upper left corner, double-spaced, with your last name and page number in the upper right corner, just like the “document layout MLA Style format” document posted in Canvas – paper title should be centered, not underlined, not bold, double-spaced down from the heading • include a Works Cited page for the book you’re discussing  at least 750 words but no more than 1,000 words  include at least ten direct quotes from the book, using in-text citations with page numbers

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