If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Lesson Plan

How is If on a winter’s night a traveler different from other books you’ve read? How do these differences inform your experience of the novel so far?

If on a winter’s night a traveler is different from other books in several ways. First, the numbered chapters are told in the second person. This is very unusual for a novel, which is usually told in first or third persons. While Calvino seems to have a specific reader, as a character, in mind, the second person allows the actual reader to place himself in the shoes of the fictional reader and walk through the novel as that character. Second, students should have picked up on the fact that in between each chapter, Calvino is...