Point of View with Mentor Texts

Emilie was still weak from her illness and coughed a great deal as she fussed around us in the stable. From time to time now, she would heave herself up onto my back, and I would walk gently around the yard and into the meadow with Topthorn following close behind (79). [War Horse by Michael Morpurgoo].

WHAT IS THE POINT OF VIEW?

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Emilie

• 3rd Person Limited to Topthorn

• 3rd Person Omniscient

Ghost of Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

“What have we done to you guys?” Cole asked. But he knew they didn’t need a reason. He has never needed a reason himself when he used to beat up kids. He knew exactly how Keith and his friends thought, and it scared him.

“Maybe I don’t like you,” said Alex, a skinny blond kid from Cole’s math class.

Cole glanced around (27).

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Cole

• 3rd Person Limited to Alex

• 3rd Person Omniscient

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

This was school. Every day, hours of classes. Reading. Numbers. History. Videos of the bloody battles in space, the Marines spraying their guts all over the walls of the bugger ships. Holos of the clean wars of the fleet, ships turning into puffs of light as the spacecraft killed each other deftly in the deep night. Many things to learn. Ender worked as hard as anyone; all of them struggled for the first time in their lives, as for the first time in their lives they competed with classmates who were as least as bright as they (45).

But the games - that is what they lived for. That is what filled the hours between waking and sleeping.

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Ender

• 3rd Person Limited to Them

• 3rd Person Omniscient

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

It’s a child’s scream, a young girl’s scream. There’s no one in the arena capable of making that sound except Rue. And now I’m running, knowing this may be a trap, knowing the three Careers may be poised to attack me, but I can’t help myself. There’s another high-pitched cry, this time my name. “Katniss! Katniss!” (232).

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Katniss

• 3rd Person Limited to Rue

• 3rd Person Omniscient

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

“What are you doing?” a man called. “You cannot save them!” The woman did not answer. When she looked up, Salva could see tears in her eyes. She shook her head, then poured a little water onto a cloth and began to wet the lips of one of the men on the sand.

Salva looked at the hollow eyes and the cracked lips of the men lying on the hot sand, and his own mouth felt so dry that he nearly choked when he tried to swallow. (55)

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Salva

• 3rd Person Limited to the woman

• 3rd Person Omniscient

Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez

Some of the tombstones have pictures of the dead, but I don’t need a tombstone to remember every detail about my mom. She loved jangling bracelets and sleeveless tops because she had beautiful arms. Most ladies have a lot of flab above the elbows. But not Mom. She had soft cups of muscle on her shoulders and firm biceps because she exercised with her five pound dumbbells every morning. She used to flex her muscles in the mirror when she thought she was alone. Sometimes I called her Xena from the T.V. show (65).

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to the girl

• 3rd Person Limited to the mom

• 3rd Person Omniscient

Glinda of Oz by Frank L. Baum

Ozma took the arm of her hostess, but Dorothy lagged behind. When at last she rejoined Glinda and Ozma in the hall, she found them talking earnestly about the condition of the people, and how to make them more happy and contented– although they were already the happiest and most contented folks in all the world. This interested Ozma, of course, but it didn’t interest Dorothy very much, so the little girl ran over to the big table on which was lying open Glinda’s Great Book of Records.

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Ozma

• 3rd Person Limited to Glinda

• 3rd Person Limited to Dorothy

• 3rd Person Omniscient

The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen

It all began when Ms. Frizzle showed our class a film strip about the human body. We knew trouble was about to start, because we knew Ms. Frizzle was the strangest teacher in the school.

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Ms. Frizzle

• 3rd Person Limited to the class

• 3rd Person Omniscient

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

We lived on the main residential street in town—Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment… Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. She was a Graham from Montgomery; Atticus met her when he was first elected to the state legislature (6).

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Atticus

• 3rd Person Limited to Jem

• 3rd Person Calpurnia

• 3rd Person Omniscient

Rikki-tikki-tavi by Rudyard Kipling

Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he raced for the end of the melon patch near the wall. “I was not a day too soon,” he said, for he could see the baby cobras curled up inside the skin, and he knew that the minute they were hatched they could kill a man or mongoose. He bit off the tops of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young cobras. Nagaina spun clear round, forgetting everything for the sake of her eggs. She saw she had lost her chance of killing Teddy, and the last egg lay between Rikki-tikki’s paws.

IDENTIFY THE POINT OF VIEW.

• 1st Person

• 3rd Person Limited to Rikki Tikki

• 3rd Person Limited to Nagaina

• 3rd Person Omniscient