Welcome to day 12 of 40 craft lessons from 40 picture books.
Third-person POV (“she,” “her”) is versatile. It can be an omniscient, god-like POV that knows everything—thoughts, feelings, and experiences of all characters—and moves freely between multiple characters’ minds. We don’t see the omniscient POV very often anymore.
What we usually encounter is either third-person limited POV or third-person objective POV. In the former, the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of one character; everything else is seen through that character’s perspective. In the latter, the objective POV, the narrator is very literal. It reports only what can be observed—actions, dialogue, and events—but no thoughts or feelings.
The POV of School’s First Day of School (2016, Adam Rex, Christian Robinson) is third-person limited. The narrator reports the school’s feelings and thoughts to us. This is where confusion often arises: many readers mistake this limited POV for an inanimate narrator, thinking the school itself is narrating the story.
This distinction matters—not just for definitions, but for understanding the story’s perspective. Think of it like this: you write a one-page story about your day, and a very close friend writes about your day. The story your friend tells is shaped by their perspective—they may know what you felt, but they are still narrating from their own perspective. Similarly, in School’s First Day of School, the narrator shows us the school’s inner world, but it is still a narrator describing the school, not the school narrating itself.
I hope reading this blog post has given you new ideas. See you tomorrow for Day 13. If you would like to read these 40 craft lessons on WhatsApp, please join the channel.