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point of view
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From: Renee Hoxie <rhoxie>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:59:44 -0600
I'm enjoying the discussion about point of view, because it's helping me to clarify my feelings about some of the nonlinear and multiple points of view stories that I've recently read. I had some trouble with keeping the characters straight in BAT 6, but I'm inclined to agree with others that this is most likely no problem for young readers. Kate McClelland described the encounter between Aki and Shazam after Aki's injury as "profound and deep." Indeed it was. I was able to identify with each of them. I was also able to understand the feelings expressed by the other characters as well because each felt some sense of responsibility for the tragic event. Each character had a very personal view of what had led to the incident.
The same is true of SEEDFOLKS with its' multiple perspectives; it's easy to connect with each character and to see how each fits into the story as a whole. The "delicate sense of community" that Brenda Bowen said Wolff was working toward in BAT 6 seems evident also in SEEDFOLKS; the multiple points of view serve each author well.
I missed those connections, however, in MEGABOY. The book, for me, was like reading a newspaper account of a murder. I didn't have a sense of the boy's voice. His connection to the other characters was thinner than a thread. As a reader, I also never found a real connection to any of the characters. Perhaps this was the intent of the author, but I found it an unsatisfactory experience.
The topic this month seems to be focused largely on multiple points of view, but I don't want to leave a discussion of point of view without mentioning Coman's WHAT JAMIE SAW. She does such a beaufiful job of telling the story through Jamie's eyes. It would have been so easy to relate the conversation between adults in the next room, but Jamie is too tired to listen. Equally easy to describe Jamie's mother's feelings as she drove away from Van, but those weren't Jamie's feelings. Though written in third person, Coman never loses the point of view. What we know is seen and interpreted only by Jamie. Megan Schliesman wrote that "...one of the things the use of multiple points of view achieved so well was to recreate the ways that we as individuals - and especially children - try to make sense of the events that take place in our lives." That is exactly what Coman is so successful in doing with a single point of view in Jamie. I'm so glad she told her story with his voice. Renee
Renee Hoxie, School Library Media Specialist Thomas Jefferson Middle School 101 South Gammon Road Madison, Wisconsin 53717 phone 608?9A21
Received on Tue 10 Nov 1998 03:59:44 PM CST
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:59:44 -0600
I'm enjoying the discussion about point of view, because it's helping me to clarify my feelings about some of the nonlinear and multiple points of view stories that I've recently read. I had some trouble with keeping the characters straight in BAT 6, but I'm inclined to agree with others that this is most likely no problem for young readers. Kate McClelland described the encounter between Aki and Shazam after Aki's injury as "profound and deep." Indeed it was. I was able to identify with each of them. I was also able to understand the feelings expressed by the other characters as well because each felt some sense of responsibility for the tragic event. Each character had a very personal view of what had led to the incident.
The same is true of SEEDFOLKS with its' multiple perspectives; it's easy to connect with each character and to see how each fits into the story as a whole. The "delicate sense of community" that Brenda Bowen said Wolff was working toward in BAT 6 seems evident also in SEEDFOLKS; the multiple points of view serve each author well.
I missed those connections, however, in MEGABOY. The book, for me, was like reading a newspaper account of a murder. I didn't have a sense of the boy's voice. His connection to the other characters was thinner than a thread. As a reader, I also never found a real connection to any of the characters. Perhaps this was the intent of the author, but I found it an unsatisfactory experience.
The topic this month seems to be focused largely on multiple points of view, but I don't want to leave a discussion of point of view without mentioning Coman's WHAT JAMIE SAW. She does such a beaufiful job of telling the story through Jamie's eyes. It would have been so easy to relate the conversation between adults in the next room, but Jamie is too tired to listen. Equally easy to describe Jamie's mother's feelings as she drove away from Van, but those weren't Jamie's feelings. Though written in third person, Coman never loses the point of view. What we know is seen and interpreted only by Jamie. Megan Schliesman wrote that "...one of the things the use of multiple points of view achieved so well was to recreate the ways that we as individuals - and especially children - try to make sense of the events that take place in our lives." That is exactly what Coman is so successful in doing with a single point of view in Jamie. I'm so glad she told her story with his voice. Renee
Renee Hoxie, School Library Media Specialist Thomas Jefferson Middle School 101 South Gammon Road Madison, Wisconsin 53717 phone 608?9A21
Received on Tue 10 Nov 1998 03:59:44 PM CST
