Point of View

Harbor Me is told in the first person from the point of view of Haley McGrath, an eleven-year-old year who goes to school in Brooklyn, New York. Haley is one of six students who are gathered by their teacher to spend time together, but apart from any teacher supervision, to just talk for one hour at the end of the week. Because the focus of the novel is on the discussion between the kids, the lessons they learn and the bonds of friendship they develop, it is important that the narrator of the story is someone from inside the group. It is possible that any one of the children could have been the narrator, but the author chose Haley perhaps because of all the kids she is the most fixed on trying to remember details about people and wants to preserve everyone's words. Since she...