Point of View

The book is told from the first person point of view of Heidi Demuth — the 12-year-old protagonist. Except for the first and last chapter, the reader experiences the story as the protagonist is experiencing it. The reader is privy to all the information the protagonist has.

However, the first chapter of the book, while told in first person, is told with the privilege of hindsight. Heidi discloses that she has already experienced and processed the events of the story -- a perspective that the reader cannot have without having read the book. The protagonist tells the reader the lessons learned through the experiences being described in the book. This beginning prepares the reader to look for the follies of the protagonist as it’s happening to her. Although the reader will only have the information that the protagonist has, the first chapter allows the reader...