User:Kenzzippel/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
The Paper Bag Princess

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose to evaluate this article because Robert Munsch was my favourite author as a child. His books always intrigued me and The Paper Bag Princess was one of the first books I can remember reading by him. It is important for parents to have access to information about anything involved in children's literature, including some highlights on the author. Children always have questions and it would be amazing for the education to continue beyond school at home where parents can converse with their children on stories they may have read in school. My first impression of this article is that it is very short and sweet.

Evaluate the article
The Paper Bag Princess article began with a concise introduction that entailed the author, illustrator and concept of the story. By referring to a well known stereotype in literature, The Princess and The Dragon, the reader can easily grasp the twist this Robert Munsch story brings to femininity. If the reader is not familiar with the stereotype it is linked to take the reader to another article which further explains that popular tale. Under the brief introduction to the story is a list of Contents. Every section of the article is listed under Contents which allows the reader to easily navigate around the reading and focus on a certain aspect of the book. The content of this article is up to date. The article mentions a change of wording made to some editions of the book, The Paper Bag Princess, in 2013. The article also mentions the rise in femininity this book brought about. It is important for children to note that this story goes against the norm and it is important for female characters to have a meaningful role in stories. As horrible as the prince is in the story the article does a good job at describing Ronald. Ronald is the prince and is still described to be good looking even though the only trait that truly matters is his selfishness. The article favours the princess because the story is tied around her and her efforts to save the prince however, the prince was not disregarded in the article and mentioned almost as much as the princess. It is crucial that the feminist viewpoint is represented in this story which I personally found the article did. When looking at the article the first thing I noticed was a message that said “This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations”. This message clearly states the article does not have enough citations to successfully convey the information being told. If the article was filled with more reliable secondary sources the information would be seen as more accurate. However this message was made in August of 2015, and the article was last edited this month, so the article may have more references than before. I feel the article does need more inline citations as well as, there could be more sources of information to strengthen the article. The citations that are listed in the article work are as recent as 2019. I found this article to be very easy to read. A parent could easily access the information about the children book, The Paper Bag Princess. A child could also easily read the material in the article and learn more about the powerful message behind this story. The plot and characters each have their own section of the article and are detailed and relevant to the story. The only image on this article is the front cover of the book. I feel this is really all the article needs because as long as people can recognize the book they can make the connection. Illustrations inside the book are not as important because that can be found on the illustrators page. The image of the cover is at the top of the page and the first thing my eyes draw to when opening the article. The author and illustrator are linked below the image as well as some key information. Overall this article was short and sweet. It entailed all of the important information any parent or child would need to know. It was very easy to read and navigate around. The article also kept the importance of the princess and the role a female played in the story, The Paper Bag Princess.