Points of View

The point of view switches between the first person and the third person. Each of the four students, Noah, Nadia, Ethan, and Julian, has one chapter, which is told in the first person from their perspective. These chapters are given titles with the child's name, such as "Nadia Tells of Turtle Love." Each of these chapters gives the reader a chance to hear from these children in their own voices. The rest of the novel is written in the third person, with Mrs. Olinski's perspective the primary one. Mrs. Olinski, though an important and major character, is not a primary actor in the book; rather, she is acted upon (with great kindness) by The Souls. It is fitting, then, that The Souls's voices are given primacy in the points of view.

Setting

The novel is set in a small town in upstate New York called Epiphany...