Point of View

“Navigating Early” by Claire Vanderpool is told in the first person from the perspective of the protagonist Jack Baker. The story is told from the point of view of 13-year-old Jack who has just lost his mother unexpectedly and has been transplanted from his home in Kansas to a boys’ boarding school in Maine. His father is a military man who is stationed in Portsmouth and selects the boarding school that is closest to him. As a navy captain, Jack’s father has been away for much of Jack’s life and Jack is not close to him. Jack is grieving over his mother’s death, is upset at being yanked from his home and is uncertain about his relationship with a father he doesn’t know. By telling the story from Jack’s perspective, the reader is privy to the young boy’s angst...