ENG1141
Creative Writing
Formal Critique
Reviewer’s Name: Nickay Green
Title of Piece: The First Day
Author’s Name: Edward P. Jones
Plot: The story is about a five-year-old girl first day going to kindergarten. From the beginning of the story, the main character shared her thoughts/feelings as she set out on her journey to start a new chapter of becoming a kindergarten student. As the story unfolds, we get to see the roadblocks the little girls and her mother was faced with when she was turned away from the first school she tried to get into, then the struggled her mother was faced with when she was unable to fill out the forms due to her inability to read and write.
Characters: The author created the main character to be very observant and intuitive about what was happing around her, and paid close attention to details.
Point of View: The author uses the point of view of a five-year-old little girl who was experiencing kindergarten for the first time.
Setting & Context: . The story took place on a September morning as a little girl took her mother’s hands and set out to get enrolled in kindergarten. He started out by sharing what she was wearing and how much time her mother spent on getting her ready for her first day. And concluded with her standing in the middle of a hallway as she heard her mother shoe eco on the floor as she departs from the building.
I like the way the author created a mood throughout the story by describing the streets they walked by and the crowded auditorium filled with white papers on the floor packed with children and parents.
Voice & Style: The author was clear and very descriptive and was easy to follow. I like how closely he paid attention to details, and how well he was able to bring his characters to life with words by describing their facial expressions, what they were wearing as well as what they were saying.
Dialogue: The author used dialogue throughout the story to share conversations the little girl had with her mother as well as with the teachers.
QUESTION: what would you say was the most frightening part about that day?
I agree with what you said for the character section because the main character was very descriptive about her surrounding and how she’s feeling.
Hi Nickay, I liked how you summarized the story. I agree with you thre author did convey different emotions. He did so by using many details and how the main character felt, heard, and saw
I agree when you said that the author made the main character very intuitive and observant, because she was able to noticed that her mom couldn’t read or write and give descriptive details of her first day of school and how everything around her look like.