From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 14:47:25 -0400

I have a vivid memory of two sixth grade boys, the afternoon of the last?y-of-school field day, sitting on a hillside apart from the play, one earnestly, and at length, filling the other in on the end of Jip's story which the second had missed hearing when he missed school that morning. These boys (and their classmates) loved that character. They wanted to know more. I'm sure they would be just as thrilled to have a grown-up Jip turn up much later, quietly, in another book as I was to find Lyddie in that story. Over the years, students of mine have read (or heard) and discussed many of Paterson's books ranging from the realistic to the U.S. and Asian?sed historical fiction. The characters are what (who?) they most frequently respond to. Vivid settings, interesting workings out of themes, issues of plot construction, even moral questions may be a part of our conversations and their written responses but first and foremost they care about the very real people they have come to know. In my current classroom Louise Bradshaw is not so much an "unreliable narrator" as a character who helps me, the English and geography teacher, talk about the idea of point of view. We hear the story of her childhood from her point of view, but we are allowed to see how she has grown and changed, seeing, or writing, her story differently as an adult. The richness of character development that the structure of Jacob Have I Loved allows is stunning. And Paterson's sympathy for the jealous and self?ntered child as well as the more understanding adult is a reflection of her own generous spirit.

Kathy Isaacs Edmund Burke School kisaacs at mindspring.com
Received on Sun 22 Aug 1999 01:47:25 PM CDT