Reading for Perspective: Who Is Telling Me This? Why?

Reading for Perspective: Who Is Telling Me This? Why?

             I just finished reading two history books for children, narrated not from the author’s perspective, but from the perspective of a person from the past. Clearly, this takes a leap of imagination on the part of the author, since each of these narrators lived at a very different time from the present day. The author must understand this time and make use of historical evidence to build this understanding.

 

            The first book I read is The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore, a picture book written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. It tells about the Harlem bookstore owner Lewis Michaux and is narrated by his son, Lewis Michaux, Jr. He is proud of his father and what he accomplished. As an aside, the author is also related to Lewis Michaux and she is up front about this. As you can see, perspective is complicated. 

 

            The second book is Jump Back, Paul written by Sally Derby and illustrated by Sean Qualls. Here we have the author telling the story of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the African American poet and novelist, from the perspective of a grandmother. Whose grandmother? Don’t ask because the author doesn’t tell. However, this grandmother is well informed and also quite opinionated.

            I learned a lot by reading these books. They are clearly written, well researched, and well illustrated.  But they also require readers to think about how perspective influences each of these historical narratives.

 

            Common Core State Standards ask us to consider the author’s point of view. But it is more complicated when the author’s point of view isn’t necessarily the narrator’s point of view. In this case, we need to delve more deeply into the nature of the perspective we are being offered. So here are some questions I like to think about when the author of a historical narrative uses the perspective of someone from the past:

•    Who is telling me this information? 
•   What does this narrator want me to know?
•     If someone else narrated these events, how would the narrative change?
•    What evidence did the author use to create this narrative?
•    Is the narrative convincing? Why?

           

As I see it, learning how to read is just like learning how to think. To read history, we need to think historically.