The First Person

For a long time, I thought that first-person was a style used only for the Dear America books. I mean, it's a diary. Of course it's written in first-person.

But then I ventured out. I wish I could remember all the books that began my first-person journey. For some reason, Francis O'Roark Dowell's Dovey Coe is coming into my mind:

"My name is Dovey Coe, and I reckon it don't matter if you like me or not."

Then there was Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted:

"That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me."

And one of my best-ever thrift store finds, Ralph Fletcher's Fig Pudding:

"My full name is Clifford Allyn Abernathy III, after my father and grandfather, but I leave off the III, the Allyn, and the ord."

What's funny is that even by reading these amazing books, I didn't write in first person. Third, third, and more third - that was what I wrote. I may have attempted first once or twice, but it didn't flow like my words did in third. So I gave it up, deciding that third was where my heart was, where the story could be told best.

And then came a little ARC that my small-town libary placed into circulation before it came out in stores, before it was famous and garnering rave reviews from readers and critics alike: The Hunger Games:

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold."

That book was a page-turner like none I'd ever read before. I read and read and read deep into the night, and when I turned the light off and drifted into dreams, I entered Katniss' world. I could hear her narrating the story in my head as I was in the Games. Her voice narrated my dreams that night.

And I woke up in awe of what first-person present-tense could do. It was because of The Hunger Games that I began to dabble in first-person. (What happened then will wait until tomorrow, because this post is way too long.)


I realized while writing this post that I couldn't remember many of my favorite MG and YA first-person books. So, throw some at me! Give me some good first-person stories! (And let me know...did they narrate your dreams, too?) :)