2. Excellence of pictorial interpretation of story, theme, or concept.
Elisha Cooper does a great job with expressing the meaning of the story through pictures. She discusses the circle of life through the life of cats. You can tell with the pictures throughout the cats lives that it starts with having support to learn about things surrounding you, then as they age and grow, the white cat ends up leaving, and then it starts over again with a little white cat.

3. Appropriateness of style of illustration to the story, theme or concept.
I think "Big Cat, little cat" is appropriate with the illustration. The illustrations are needed in order to fully capture the story's meaning. Children can understand the circle of life in the form of cats. For example, the words quote "Until the older cat got older and one day he had to go... and he didn't come back. And that was hard." The illustrations show the white cat laying down and then leaving the black cat alone. It shows that it is okay to be sad when someone passes or leaves, but life does end up going on and it is a natural thing.

4. Delineation of plot, theme, characters, setting, mood or information through the pictures.
Elisha Cooper shows the meaning through the pictures by showing the black cat growing up. As the black cat grows up, you can see through images, the white cat starts laying down more to indicate it is getting weaker. Then the images show the black cat being sad and distant from the family in the images. You can see through the pictures, the hope returning when the black cat has a white kitten come so the black cat takes the replace of the older white cat. It shows to children that the circle of life is not bad and you will go through many changes throughout life.

5. Excellence of presentation in recognition of a child audience.
This book is catered to young children. First, there is only 15 words max on a single page. Secondly, there is repetition within the story that says "big cat, little cat". Lastly, there is pictures to show what the actions are being done. For example, the words say "climbing" and the pictures show the cats climbing on the chair.

Picture Book Criteria from CHCL Chapter 3

Page 86: “Evaluating Picture Books”

Content:
This book is for young children. It has a balance of pictures and words so even if a young child can't read the words, they can still look at the pictures and understand the story. It also teaches children that it is normal to grow up and that life changes to them and people around them. You can tell that the setting is indoors at a family's house. This is shown when the words say "hunting", and the two cats are looking outside at birds at a bird feeding.

Illustrations:
The pictures are needed in order to understand the story. For a young child, they can look at the pictures and understand the meaning of the story. Looking at the pictures, you can tell the closeness of the two cats. For example, there is an illustration of the two cats sleeping intertwined with each other to indicate how close they are.

Medium and Style of Illustrations:
Elisha Cooper makes the style of the illustrations flow throughout the story. The medium of the illustrations is all black and white and looks like a outline of a black thick marker and then shaded in with marker for the black objects. The only thing that is confusing is that there is different color blue pokey dots in the beginning page of the story, and i'm not sure where that comes into play with the story.

Format:
I think the jacket of the book does portray the book well. The white and black cat is on the front to indicate what the story is about. The title has the big cat in all caps and all black, shown as BIG CAT. Then there is a comma and little cat in lower letters and in blue, shown as little cat. I think this makes sense to emphasize the size difference between the cats, however, I am not sure where the color blue comes into the story. On the front of the jacket, its the cat's front. While on the back, it shows the cats sitting near each other with their backs facing the audience.

Overall Evaluations:
This story is a book catered to young children. It teaches them about friendship, growing up, and its okay that things change in life. The author has other books that have animal characters, for example the animal alphabet. One review of the book stated: "Change is inevitable and in the circle of life the student eventually becomes the teacher. A sweet and tender story of friendship, love, life, and loss." I completely agree with this review since it sums up the meaning of the story and is always shown throughout the plot.

Books that are enjoyable for reading aloud and have appeal to a wide range of families.
This book is enjoyable for families. On the words that are bold, such as "CHUGGA-CHUGGA", everyone can make that sound together to make it fun. Families can also share their own experiences that they have had with train. This book can also be good to read before getting on a train or visiting a train museum to get the family ready.

 The illustrations emphasize what is being said in the text. A child can easily follow along with just the picture. Children can also point out what animal is being shown on the page and what is happening with the animals. The emotions on the animal's faces is noticeable and helps know what is happening in the story.

I think it is the opposite in this story. I think the author exposes the stereotype of native Americans and African Americans. This is shown by how Moth are treated in schools. It also discusses the history of African Americans and how they were treated in the past. 

A 14 year old named Ricky was just diagnosed with a chronic illness. Understandable, she is angry and starts cursing everyone out and skipping school. I think this is so realistic to finding out you have rheumatoid arthritis especially at a young age. I think this book does a good job portraying that people can be mad when having an illness. It's not always them trying to be brave and they shouldn't be happy all the time like the stigma portrays anyone with a disability or illness.

Style: 
2. Should be engaging with distinctive use of language for plot and character development and setting delineation. 

This book has the language that a middle schooler or teenager would speak. I think it grabs your attention right away with introducing the main character, a quote I laughed at is on page 2 saying, "Trust me, my particular life suckage is on a whole different level. (For the record, the boy I was crushing on was totally crushing back- until I got sick)." I just thought that was something in that age group would say, I could imagine my little sister saying that to me. This type of language is all throughout the book which makes it more relatable for teenagers and more likely to read.

Illustration and Design:
3.  Layout should be easy to follow, enhancing the flow of the story or information.
There are chapters that explain what happens in that chapter. For example, chapter three is called "we interrupt this glorious nap...". Even the chapter titles are something a teenager would say such as "well that was awkward" or "(groan), do I have to?" So it follows the sarcasm within the story, which makes children enjoy it more.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction Criteria from CHCL Chapter 7 Page 221: “Evaluating Contemporary Realistic Fiction”

1. Are the characters convincing and credible to today’s child?
Yes, the main character talks about crushing on a boy. This is normal for most children around 14. It also talks about school problems, such as fitting in and making friends. I think all children can relate that especially when they go into middle school and it can get lonely just like it did for Ricky.

2. Does the author avoid stereotyping?
Yes the author does avoid stereotyping. Ricky has rheumatoid arthritis, which is extremely painful, but yet she is still a normal teenager. She has school problems and she has a crush on a boy. She has sarcasm and acts like a typical teenager. It also shows that just because someone has a illness, doesn't mean they can't still enjoy life and make friends. You see this with Ricky when she skips school to hide her illness until it comes out that she is going to fail ninth grade. Ricky has no choice to go back to school when she meets a cancer survivor. Oliver lives her life even surviving cancer, she goes on with life which helps Ricky. Ricky then enjoys her life and actually starts to enjoy school.

The book provides history in Sicily, such as a holiday that takes place. On page 272, they talk about this holiday saying, "There are lots of stories circulating about Death taking a holiday in Sicily.. At midnight some people saw the same comet that appeared at the birth of the Baby Jesus. Here in Palermo everyone is convinced that it was Santa Rosalia, except for those who remember Don Vittorio and are sure he did it from beyond. Every city is claiming its own patron saint as the source of the miracle." Also, the language is still spoken in the books. Such as on page 272 again, "I'll say she's an extremely powerful magara", when speaking about the mother. The names of characters are also more common in Sicily.

2. The textual qualities to be evaluated will vary depending on the content and type of the book being considered. Each book should be evaluated only on the elements pertinent to it.
- Interpretation of the theme or concept
The theme is to never take anything for granted. You can see this with Santino having a normal life. Until his father, grandfather, and himself get shot by a mafia member. Santino now has a difficult decision on his hands whether or not to tell the police. Then Lucio has to take care of his little sister and his mother but often dreams of going sailing. Other children, his age, may not have to worry about taking care of their family members and may be able to go sailing freely. Then Lucio has to go get his mother from Palermo. This shows that you should never take anything for granted cause anything can change in a second in someone's life.

3. In all cases, committee members must consider the book's manner of presentation for and the potential appeal to a child audience.

This book would be a great book to have in high schools. Children could relate to this especially in city schools and schools surrounded by poverty. I think the title alone would spark an interest with teenagers with "Run for your life." I feel like teenagers may feel that way sometimes especially if they are in similar situations like the boys in the story.