Detective Abby: You’re just in time, story sleuths! Check out this note I found on top of my case files. Ahem “Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. To solve this next case, you know what to do.” Hmm, I think we’re talking about poetry.

I’m Detective Abby, and this is Crash Course Kids Literature.

[0:18] [THEME MUSIC]

[0:23] Detective Abby: You’ve probably heard stories told in  prose, or ordinary language, and in poetry. Both can have characters, plots, and themes. But poetry is usually written… a little differently. Poems are made up of lines, or rows of words.

These are kind of like sentences in prose, but they don’t need to be complete sentences, with a noun and a verb. In a poem, multiple lines make up a stanza. These are kind of like paragraphs in prose.

Poems often have a rhythm, and sometimes they rhyme — kind of like music. And lots of times, poems are shorter than prose stories. But that doesn’t mean poems are easier to read or that there’s less happening in them.

Poets are just really good at telling a whole story using only a few words and details. Like, imagine a prose story is like a plate of desserts.

[1:17] *snaps*

[1:18] Detective Abby: What, you didn’t know I’m magic, too? You’ve got plot, characters, setting, dialogue, and so on.

[1:26] *chomps*

[1:28] Detective Abby: Delicious! But, if you grab a small piece of each thing, now you’ve made one perfect bite. You’ve got a hint of plot, a dash of character, and just a little sprinkle of setting, and so on. Hey now.

[1:47] *chomps*

[1:50] Detective Abby: That’s like a poem. Just as tasty! Today we’re going to look at a book called “Inside Out and Back Again” by Thanhhà Lại. It’s a novel in verse, which means it tells us an entire story through many connected poems.

Here’s what we know about the story so far. In 1975, during the Vietnam War,  ten-year-old Hà lives in Vietnam with her mother and three brothers. Her dad disappeared nine years earlier, and Hà’s Uncle Sơn helps her family immigrate to the United States.

But it’s a very challenging transition. The family is still hoping that Hà’s father will be found, but they have to build a new life in the U.S.

Hà struggles to learn English, and she’s bullied at school. Soon, they meet a neighbor who helps Hà learn English and listens to her experiences. With her help, things start to get better.

Eventually, Hà and her family accept that her father has died. One year after the beginning of the story, Hà’s family has found peace, and Hà feels hopeful about the future. Now, let’s look more closely at how this story is told.

Like I mentioned, the book is  made up of many connected poems, which work kind of like chapters in a novel. The poems in this book are all written in free verse. That means, unlike the mysterious note I received, they don’t rhyme, and there’s no regular structure or rhythm.

The first poem in this book is called “1975: Year of the Cat.” It’s Vietnamese New Year, or Tết. Unfortunately, Hà isn’t really in a holiday mood. But the poem doesn’t come right out and tell us that.

Instead it uses what’s called figurative language. To understand what that is, it’s helpful to consider the opposite: literal language. Say I tell you about a storm that happened yesterday.

It was cloudy and rainy. In this case, I mean what I said! That’s literal language.

But what if I told you I felt stormy yesterday? You’d understand that I meant I was feeling sad, angry, or maybe even a little mix of both. That’s figurative language, or non-literal language, which involves making comparisons to help the reader understand.

So, the first poem doesn’t specifically say how Hà is feeling. Instead, she says there’s “an old, angry knot” in her throat. That’s figurative language!

And more specifically, it’s a metaphor. A metaphor is a comparison that  doesn’t use “like” or “as.” In this case, we’re comparing the feeling of being angry to the imagined feeling of a knot in your throat. Which — can you imagine that?

It would feel prickly and annoying, and even painful, right? Not at all like that perfect bite. And there’s even another type of figurative language here.

Consider this: can a knot really feel angry? No, that’s a human emotion! So, the poem is using what’s called personification.

It’s giving human qualities to an object or an animal. So, when we picture an angry knot, we can imagine how  tightly it would be pulled and tangled together. And that personification helps us relate even more to what Hà is feeling.

Now let’s look at the last poem of the book, “1976: Year of the Dragon.” It’s Tết again. But by now, life for Hà’s family is completely different. She says that in the new year she hopes she can learn how to fly-kick, “Not to kick anyone So much as to fly.” See, earlier in the book, Hà begged her older brother to teach her a martial arts move called the fly-kick.

To both of them, learning self-defense  meant they could stand up to their bullies. It also meant being safe and accepted in the United States. So, self-defense and the specific move of the fly-kick are examples of symbolism.

That’s when something stands for something else. Like how a heart is a symbol for love, and a flag can be a symbol for a country. By the end of the book, Hà isn’t as worried about her bullies anymore.

But being able to fly-kick is still a symbol of what she’s hoping for. She doesn’t literally want to kick anyone–or even fly. Instead, “fly” means  something more like… “thrive.” Hà hopes to get better at English, do better in school, and to find her place in the United States.

Hey, is this another note? Now story sleuths, let’s close our case. We learned a lot today.

About poetry and stories, And all the things that they can say. Hm! I think I’m gonna go write my own poem.

I’ll see you next time story sleuths! Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Kids Literature, which was filmed at the Complexly studio in Indianapolis, Indiana and was made with the help of all of these poetic people.