Mentor Texts {Point of View}

It's my last post in my Mentor Text series. If you'd like to see other posts about using mentor texts to teach various reading strategies, you can click "Mentor Texts" under labels on my sidebar.

Today, let's talk about point of view. Point of view is the perspective in which the story is written.

Here are some titles that can be used to teach point of view with a bit of information about each one.

“In this humorous story, Alexander T. Wolf tells his own outlandish version of what really happens during his encounter with the three pigs…. Smith's simplistic and wacky illustrations add to the effectiveness of this fractured fairy tale.” - Summary from Amazon.

OF COURSE you think I did a horrible thing by eating Little Red Riding Hood and her granny. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you... Text preview from Amazon.

What would you do if the ant you were about to step on looked up and started talking? Would you stop and listen? What if your friends saw you hesitate? That’s what happens in this funny, thought-provoking book. Originally a song by a father-daughter team, this conversation between two creatures, large and small, is bound to inspire important discussions. It might even answer that classic childhood question: To squish or not to squish? Summary from Amazon.

*I LOVED this book! So, so cute!

Henry Brown doesn't know how old he is. Nobody keeps records of slaves' birthdays. All the time he dreams about freedom, but that dream seems farther away than ever when he is torn from his family and put to work in a warehouse. Henry grows up and marries, but he is again devastated when his family is sold at the slave market. Then one day, as he lifts a crate at the warehouse, he knows exactly what he must do: He will mail himself to the North. After an arduous journey in the crate, Henry finally has a birthday -- his first day of freedom. Summary of Amazon.

* I love this book, too. It can easily be used in Social Studies.

It’s December 1, 1955. A boy and his mother are riding the bus in Montgomery, Alabama like any other day—way in the back of the bus. The boy passes time by watching his marble roll up and down the aisle with the motion of the bus…

Until a big commotion breaks out from way up front.

With simple words and powerful illustrations, Aaron Reynolds and Coretta Scott King medalist Floyd Cooper recount the pivotal arrest of Rosa Parks at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement.

* This book is new to me, but I'll definitely use it this year for this strategy, as well as during a unit during this time period in History.

What books would you recommend to teach point of view?