Here is a list of excellent books to get started with as you introduce the strategy of evaluating to your students. Be sure to model evaluating with both fiction and non-fiction texts, since the reasons for evaluating and criteria used will often be quite different.

These books were chosen for us by the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The list includes engaging titles that meet a range of reading and listening abilities. You may also print the complete list with suggested books for all strategies: Reading to Understand: Children's Books to Use with Comprehension Strategies. Then find multimedia, online resources about these books and authors using the Into the Book List at TeachingBooks.net.

Children's Books to Help You Teach the Evaluating Strategy

Aliki. Ah, Music! HarperCollins, 2003. 32 pages

Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog. HarperCollins, 2001. 84 pages

DePaola, Tomie. 26 Fairmont Avenue. Putnam, 1999. 56 pages

Foreman, Michael. Wonder Goal. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. 32 pages

Frame, Jeron Ashford. Yesterday I Had the Blues. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Tricycle Press, 2003. 32 pages

Herrera, Juan Felipe. Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los meros meros remateros. Children's Book Press, 2002. 32 pages

Hopkinson, Deborah. Fannie in the Kitchen. Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Athenuem, 2001. 32 pages

Jones, Bill T. Dance. Photographs by Susan Kuklin. Hyperion, 1998. 32 pages

Livingstone, Star. Harley. Illustrated by Molly Bang. SeaStar, 2001. 64 pages

Pringle, Laurence. Sharks: Strange and Wonderful. Illustrated by Meryl Henderson. Boyds Mills Press, 2001. 32 pages

Sayre, April Pulley. Dig, Wait, Listen: A Desert Toad's Tale. Illustrated by Barbara Bash. Greenwillow, 2001. 32 pages

Stevenson, James. The Castaway. Greenwillow, 2002. 32 pages

U'Ren, Andrea. Mary Smith. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003. 32 pages

Weitzman, Jacqueline. You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Musuem. Illustrated by Robin Glasser. Dial, 1998. 36 pages

Compiled by Megan Schliesman
Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

For another list of books for strategy instruction and practice, see Strategies that Work.