Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm—Kate Douglas Wiggin
If I were teaching this book, I would have chosen it because of its shifting narrative style. I would introduce the concepts of author, implied author, and narrator to discuss what is going on in this text. I would actually break the class into small groups and have the groups find examples from the text that give us information about the implied narrator. I would also have them look at points where the focalization shifts – at different times, the reader is taken into the minds of different characters. While Rebecca is the center of the text, she is viewed through various characters’ eyes at different times. I would also use it to discuss genre; while the majority of the text is prose narrative, it incorporates poetry, letters, and a fairy tale, each advancing the story in a different way. (msg)