Using and Evaluating Trade Books

One way to use and evaluate trade books is through a process developed by Vacca et al., (2024) called The 5 A's. They are as follows:

• The Authority of the author
• The Accuracy  of text content
• The Appropriateness of the book for its audience
• The literary Artistry
• The Appearance of the book (Moss, 2003, pp 123-124

To employ the The 5 A's evaluation process for evaluating trade non-fiction books, I chose the book 25 Women Who Thought of It First by Jill Sherman (2018). 

Let's take a look at the process first hand.

Authority: According to Jill Sherman's author page on Capstone, she has written many different non-fiction texts ranging from grades 1-12, which lends her to being a more credible author for non-fiction as she clearly understands the effort and research that goes into non-fiction texts as she has successfully written several. Additionally, she has cited research sources in the book which lends to her credibility. 

Accuracy: After reading this series of vignettes, I was compelled to research the stories that I was not familiar with. For example, I researched Maraym Mirzakhani (mathematician) and Peggy Whitson (NASA astronaut).  Over all, Sherman does an excellent job in regards to accuracy of the stories that she tells. The stories about each woman are told with accurate portrayal of the woman as well as their contributions to STEM.

Appropriateness: This book has a Lexile level of 890 according to the publisher Capstone making it a reading level for grades 5-7. The simplicity of the text (simple sentences and lower vocabulary) make it appropriate for those grades. However, the interested level according to Capstone is 7-12 grades which seems appropriate based on the topics addressed such as AIDS and climate change which are more advanced topics. Overall, this would be a suitable text for a striving reader in grades 7-12 due to reading level and topics addressed.

Artistry:  When looking at artistry, we must determine if in the text the author uses language, imagery and other literary devices to appeal to our sense of beauty within a literary work. While this book isn't necessarily filled with figurative language or imagery, it is beautiful in its own right--the simple sentences, rich language, and attention to detail is mentally appealing to the age group in which this book is intended. 

Appearance: The book itself is very visually appealing. Each vignette includes photography or illustrations within the clear, consistent type of the text. All of the text and graphic features are cohesive and consistent throughout. Additionally, the book sticks to a complementary color scheme with the color green and orange. Within the book, you find call outs that highlight key ideas and quotations. These call outs are appropriate for the text and the audience. 

Overall, I would suggest this text to a middle level classroom (grades 7-8) or to a group of striving readers in high school (grades 9-12). It is suited best for use in a history, science, or STEAM/STEM course. The different short stories lend themselves to a history classroom, but also connect back to science in a way that could be useful when looking outside of technical content. I could also see this book being utilized by gifted and talented pull out programs in grades 4-6, allowing them to broaden their horizons in regards to women in history, as long as the teacher is prepared to skip or teach sensitive content with parent permission. 

References

Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2024). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum, 13th edition. Pearson.