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.
No comments:
Post a Comment