Point of View. Point of view is the vantage point from which a story is told. A story is told from a first-person point of view if the narrator of the story is also a character in the story. Just as you would use the pronouns I or we to tell about something you saw or were involved in, the narrator using first-person point of view uses I or we to relay the events he or she is witnessing or is part of. A narrator who uses pronouns such as he, she, it, and they, and avoids using I and we, does not directly participate in the action, and tells the story from the third-person point of view. As you read, identify the point of view from which this story is told. Look for evidence to support your answer.
Setting. The setting of a story is the time and place in which it happens. Authors reveal setting in many ways—by describing landscape, the weather, or the details of a room, neighborhood, or city, for example. As you read, pay attention to changes in time and place. Using a two-column chart like the one at right, list the main details of each setting in the story in a box in the left column. In the box to the right of each setting, list one or more details about the hummingbird at the same point in the story.
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• Science Connection. This short story tells about an old man and a hummingbird in the middle of winter in California. Normally, hummingbirds from the United States and Canada migrate to Mexico, Central America, or South America to spend the winter. Hummingbirds live only in the Americas, and just 16 of more than 300 species appear in the United States. More than 150 species are commonly seen near the equator.
• Named for the humming sound of their wings in motion, hummingbirds are the smallest birds on the planet and the only birds able to fly up, down, forward, backward, and sideways. Known for their bold nature, various species of this tiny bird migrate thousands of miles to their winter homes.
What would you do if you found a sick or injured animal?
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