Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Samantha Wasylkowski

Book Title: Players in Pigtails

Author: Shana Corey

Genre: Historical Fiction

Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbon

Publisher/Year: Scholastic Press, 2003

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)

Most of the word choices are easily understandable for children, examples: giggling, grin, silly, wild,

cheered, baseball. Some of the word choices might be more difficult for children, examples:

flabbergasted, graceful, elegant, charming, swanlike.

The sentence length varies, examples: “She preferred sliding to sewing, batting to baking and home

runs to homecoming.” “She talked baseball.” “She loved the hotdogs and the peanuts.”

The dialogue is easily understood as it varies like real conversations would. Examples: “Outrageous!

Everyone said.” “Girls playing baseball? No one will pay to see girls play ball.” “Better stick to

ballet.” “Say sister, how’d you like to go to Chicago to try out for a real team?”
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 Katie Casey. The supporting characters are her parents, a scout, the men who

own baseball teams in America, American people, the coach of the Kenosha Comets, boys from her

high school baseball team, and an etiquette teacher.

The reader can relate to Katie Casey because not everyone is good at everything and not everyone is

good at things other people think they should be good at. Katie was said to not be good at being a

girl, but it was just because other people thought she should knit, bake and dance instead of play

baseball. Even though she was not good at those things, she was good at playing baseball. “Katie

Casey wasn’t good at being a girl… at least not the girl everyone thought she should be. Her clothing

was crumpled, her knitting was knotted, her dancing was a disaster.” “There was one thing Katie was

good at, baseball.”

Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)
First, Katie Casey is not good at typical girl things but is good at baseball. Katie shows up to her

school’s baseball tryouts and does not even get a try out and boys tease her. America was at war, so

men were off to fight so there were no baseball players. Phillip Wrigley (owner of the Chicago Cubs)

has an idea for girls to play baseball. Everyone disagreed. He did not listen and sent scouts all over

America to find girls who play ball. A scout found Katie Casey and asked her to go to Chicago to try

out for a real baseball team. The coach saw Katie’s swing and said, “sign her up!” Everyone in

America thought it was weird and were opposed to the idea of girls playing baseball until they saw

the girls play.

Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)

The place of this book is in Katie Casey’s hometown (it is not specified) and then in Chicago. The

time of this book is in the 1940’s during World War II.

The main message of this book is that you can do anything you put your mind to, no matter what
others say or think about it.
Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2 points)

Naïve.
Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk): (2 points)

Pencils and ink.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the illustrations: (3)

Line: We see a lot of flowing lines to show the movement of the people illustrated in the book.

Shapes: We see many curved shapes throughout the book to show things that are alive and realistic

like all the people illustrated in the book.

Color: We see a lot of cool and warm hues throughout the book’s illustrations. Very colorful images

throughout the book.

Texture: We see varying lines on the images, cross hatching of line shows texture.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space, and all pages the

same or different). (3)

Most of the book has individual one-page illustrations that take up the entire page with little to no

white space. On two of the pages, there is a white background with three individual images on each

page. On six of the pages, most of the background is white with smaller illustrations.

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, Industry vs. Inferiority (stage four) and the age, school age.

Explain the cognitive development from this stage and provide an example from the book to support

your choice:

School age children learn to master new skills, reading, school subjects, physical skills like sports.

They develop a sense of industry when they have opportunities to develop skills and learn
information. Children who feel inferior may never learn to enjoy or take pride in what they are doing,

especially when they are criticized often and harshly.

This book shows this theory because in the beginning of the book, Katie Casey is told she is not good

at being a girl because she does not dance, knit, or bake well. She also wants to play baseball because

she loves watching baseball and playing baseball, but her school team does not even allow her to

tryout for the team. “Katie Casey wasn’t good at being a girl… at least not the kind of girl everyone

thought she should be.” “Her clothing was crumpled. Her knitting was knotted. Her dancing was a

disaster. And, no matter how hard she tried, her heart just wasn’t in home ec.” “But, there was one

thing Katie was good at, baseball. Katie could catch any ball with any mitt with her eyes closed. She

could hit any ball with any bat with one hand behind her back. She preferred sliding to sewing, batting

to knitting and homeruns to homecoming.” “Her parents were not pleased.” “Every Spring, she

showed up for Fairfield High team tryouts. And every year, she was turned away without even getting

a try. “Better stick to ballet, the boys said. What good is baseball to a girl?”

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

My rating of the book would be three, highly recommend. I would highly recommend this book

because I think it teaches a great message, that you can do anything you put your mind to, no matter

what others say. I also believe this book teaches a history lesson that before the 1940’s, girls were not

allowed to play professional ball. It also touches in the beginning on how during that time, girls were

expected to bake, knit, dance, etc. but how over time, that has changed. Teaching with this book, you

can identify how time has changed where now we see women playing professional sports and working

every job that men can but in past times, women were not allowed to do such things.

Book Extension Activity (25 points)

Your Name: Samantha Wasylkowski

Book Title: Players in Pigtails

Book Author: Shana Corey

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Date: 2003

1. Pre-K/CCSD K-2nd Grade Core Standard (5 points)

 3.PK.9: Listen to age-appropriate material that makes connections to self and the

world around them.

 7.PK.2: Listens to and responds appropriately to stories and group discussions.

 G6.PK.2: Begins to recognize characteristics that make themselves unique.

 3.PK.2: Create works of art that express themselves and represent their ideas.

 5.PK.3: Describe their creative work to others.

2. Objectives (What will children expect to learn?) (5 points)

 Explores and expands on themes within stories.

 Responds to questions about the story.

 Shares personal experiences and ideas in group discussions.

 Can express how others are similar and different from themselves.

 Understand how to express themselves through their artwork.

 Express themselves through their own artwork.

 Describe the work they have created to others.

3. Materials and Equipment needed: (5 points)

  Book, Players in Pigtails by Shana Corey

 Dry-Erase board and markers

 Scissors

 Construction paper

 Various magazines

 Glue

4. Teaching (What will you do?) (5 points)

Before reading the story, I will ask the children “did you know, there was a time when

girls were not allowed to play baseball in school and professionally?” We will briefly

discuss their answers. We will then read and listen to the story Players in Pigtails by

Shana Corey. After reading the story, I will create a Venn diagram on the dry-erase board

and write ‘girls’ on one side and ‘boys’ on the other side. I will ask the children “what are

things girls like to do?” and fill in that side of the Venn diagram. Then I will ask them

“what do boys like to do?” and fill in that side of the Venn diagram. Finally, I will ask

them “what do both girls and boys like to do?” and fill in the center of the diagram. We

will discuss how boys and girls can like and do the same things if they want to. We will

discuss how during parts of history; girls were not allowed to have the same jobs or play

professional sports like boys could. We will discuss how it is important that this has

changed and that anyone can do anything they put their mind to. We will break off into

small groups and I will inform the children that they are going to be given a piece of

construction paper in the color of their choice and they are going to look through

magazines to find things they like to do or things they like, cut them out and glue them to
 their paper. After everyone is finished, we will come back to the large group and share

what we added to our collage.

5. Closure: (2 points)

When we return to the large group, the children will be invited to share what they added

to their collage. We will discuss how many of us like similar things and how it does not

matter if we are girls or boys, that we can like and do the same things.

6. List 3 additional books in this genre to extend the learning: (3 points)

 Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki

 Benno and the Night of the Broken Glass by Meg Wiviott

 Tucky Jo and Little Heart by Patricia Pollaco