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Point of view
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From: Eliza T. Dresang <edresang>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 23:05:19 -0500
Hello All:
Non-fiction seems to be a genre in which multiple points of view are particularly useful. History for so many years, as presented to children, was so much of a "party line," that to be allowed to see the same events from various perspectives is a welcome relief. It is a way in which the child reader can confront varying opinions and begin to sort and shift for him or herself.
Steven Jaffe's *Who Were the Founding Fathers: Two Hundred Years of Reinventing History* is one example -- he moves through major eras in the past 200 years looking at "who" the likes of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin are as seen from various points of view at various times in history. This is, of course, using the term point of view in a somewhat different manner.
Jim Murphy's nonfiction books such as *The Great Fire* attempt to bring in various points of view, including in this book about the Chicago fire entries from the diary of a twelve-year-old girl who lives through it.
HMMM. When I sat down to write, I thought I had several in mind, and now I can't think of them. Any others?
Historical fiction such as *Bull Run* by P. Fleischman with its sixteen perspectives (clearly an author who tries out various ways to present different perspectives) and Patricia and Fredrick McKissack's *Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters* is yet another way in which varying points of view add richness and variety.
And finally, collections of short stories or fact and fiction around a specific theme such as *Bearing Witness: Stories of the Holocaust" (edited by Hazel Rochman) or Marion Dane Bauer's *Am I Blue: Coming out From the Silence?" or even this year's *Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets* by Lisa Rowe Faustino offer valuable and often new perspectives.
This is perhaps stretching the point but does bring to mind the increasing richness and variety of children's literature in which many of these points of view have appeared for the first time in recent years.
Eliza Dresang School of Information Studies FSU
*********************************************************************** Eliza T. Dresang, Associate Professor
School of Information Studies Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306!00 e-mail: edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Phone: 850 644 5877 (w) Phone: 850 224 1637 (h) FAX: 850 644 6253 (w) FAX: 850 224 1637 (h)
Received on Fri 20 Nov 1998 10:05:19 PM CST
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 23:05:19 -0500
Hello All:
Non-fiction seems to be a genre in which multiple points of view are particularly useful. History for so many years, as presented to children, was so much of a "party line," that to be allowed to see the same events from various perspectives is a welcome relief. It is a way in which the child reader can confront varying opinions and begin to sort and shift for him or herself.
Steven Jaffe's *Who Were the Founding Fathers: Two Hundred Years of Reinventing History* is one example -- he moves through major eras in the past 200 years looking at "who" the likes of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin are as seen from various points of view at various times in history. This is, of course, using the term point of view in a somewhat different manner.
Jim Murphy's nonfiction books such as *The Great Fire* attempt to bring in various points of view, including in this book about the Chicago fire entries from the diary of a twelve-year-old girl who lives through it.
HMMM. When I sat down to write, I thought I had several in mind, and now I can't think of them. Any others?
Historical fiction such as *Bull Run* by P. Fleischman with its sixteen perspectives (clearly an author who tries out various ways to present different perspectives) and Patricia and Fredrick McKissack's *Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters* is yet another way in which varying points of view add richness and variety.
And finally, collections of short stories or fact and fiction around a specific theme such as *Bearing Witness: Stories of the Holocaust" (edited by Hazel Rochman) or Marion Dane Bauer's *Am I Blue: Coming out From the Silence?" or even this year's *Dirty Laundry: Stories About Family Secrets* by Lisa Rowe Faustino offer valuable and often new perspectives.
This is perhaps stretching the point but does bring to mind the increasing richness and variety of children's literature in which many of these points of view have appeared for the first time in recent years.
Eliza Dresang School of Information Studies FSU
*********************************************************************** Eliza T. Dresang, Associate Professor
School of Information Studies Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306!00 e-mail: edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Phone: 850 644 5877 (w) Phone: 850 224 1637 (h) FAX: 850 644 6253 (w) FAX: 850 224 1637 (h)
Received on Fri 20 Nov 1998 10:05:19 PM CST
