Point of View

The novel is told in the first person, from Kenny's point of view. Kenny is ten years old, and so he has a child's view of the world instead of an adult's. The things that are important to Kenny are important in the novel: his family and his school. Those are the central parts of Kenny's life. Because he's young, Kenny makes mistakes in life. He lies to his mother about sharing his gloves with Rufus, for example, and he doesn't tell his mother about By's misuse of the grocery store credit line. Kenny doesn't realize that his parents would probably help him with both of these situations. Instead, he sees himself as being complicit with By's crime, even though he didn't know the cookies were stolen when he first ate one.

Kenny doesn't appreciate his own reading ability. He hates his talents because other students...