Point of View

L.M. Boston tells her novel "The River at Green Knowe" in the third-person omniscient narrative. Since the events of the book are so varied and the characters are so diverse in the ways that they approach the world, the third-person omniscient narrative works best to tell the novel. It allows readers to move through the book easily, as the events of which are centered around the children and therefore move quickly. Because the book is full of magical adventure, focusing the book around the point of view of any one of the three children, or of either Dr. Biggin or Miss Bun, would not have sufficed if done in the first-person narrative.

The third-person omniscient view also allows the reader to follow along on the adventures of the children, as a happy observer who may wish to go on his or her own adventures. The...