For April, which is poetry month, we decided to have a poem a day challenge and also
read to verse novels and compare them. A verse novel is a book that is told in poem
form, you might be asking so it's just a poem and that's where you are wrong. A verse
novel is in poem form, but the book is not like a poem because it tells a story. Now you
might be asking how it is different than a standard prose novel which is pretty simple it's
written in poem form.
In this essay I will compare two verse novels, The Weight of Water
and Becoming Billie
Holiday,
by these points: is the subject matter right for poetry, Is the protagonist right for
poetry, and what does the poem look like on the page.
Before I compare these books, I would like to give you a summary about both of them.
The Weight of Water
is written by Sarah Crossan and is a Realistic Fiction with 205
pages. This book is set in present time in England. However, the book goes throughout
the years of the main characters life. The book is told from a first-person viewpoint. The
main characters names is Kasienka, she is 13 years old girl but she is put in a 5th-grade
class because she is an immigrant for Poland. She starts off the book like any other
immigrant would moving to a new country and a new school, pretty shy. However, as
time goes on she starts opening up to people and making friends, and enemies. She
came to the country with her mother when they received a letter saying that her father
was in England and now they are searching for him. People mostly like Kasienka but
not many people talk to her because she is still learning English.
My second book, Becoming Billie Holiday
, this book is written by Carole Boston
Weatherford and is a historical fiction with 109 pages. This book is set in Philadelphia,
1915 at the beginning of the story. However, the story moves throughout the years of
her early life. This book is told from a first-person viewpoint. The main character's name
in this book is Eleanor but she names herself Billie Holiday. She grows up jumping
home to home because she is living with an only mother and is not well supported
financially. At the start of the book, you see the main character stealing and getting into
fights but then tries to turn her life around.
Finally, we will start comparing both of the verse novels now. In comparing The Weight
of Water
and Becoming Billie Holiday,
it is important to consider if the subject matter is
right for poetry. In The Weight of Water,
the subject is mainly about Family, Immigration,
and Bullying. One of the subjects is family because her mom and her are trying to find
her father all throughout the story. Another reason why it is about family is because at
the start of the book her grandma and mom are arguing, For example, “Honey, you
need to come back you have a child!” “ No! We will find him and we will not leave” (39).
This shows that one of the subjects is family because Kasienka has to think if finding
her father is worth it. Another subject that the book explores is immigration because
Kasienka and her mom are from Poland and Kasienka is having to go to a class of kids
that are way younger than her. For example, “ I’m 13 but I'm getting put into a class of
5th graders, they say it will help me learn”(47). This shows that one of the subjects is
immigration because Kasienka is having to go into a younger age group for school
because she is and learning English. Bullying is another main subject in this book. For
example, “ Clair has finally stopped bullying me and is not just ignoring me, which I think
is better.” (204) This shows that the book also talks about bullying because Clair was
bullying her and she finally stopped.
For the other book, Becoming Billie Holiday
, the main subjects that they talk about
in the book are racism, poverty, and family. To show racism in this book is an
understatement. For example,“ After being called “n**ger wrench” down South and “high
yellow in Detroit.” (108) This shows some of the extremely racist things that people have
said to her on her journey to become an African- American female Jazz Singer. Another
subject that is in the book is poverty. For example, “ Me and my mother never really had
a set home we were always moving house to house and from family member to another
family members house.” (57) This shows that they were in poverty when in the text it
says we never had a set home. The last subject that the book explores is family. For
example, “ The court took me away from my mother saying that she was unfit from
parenting. They took me away and put me in all girls catholic school.” (40) This shows
that the book is about family because she is trying to stay with her mom.
The way that books are similar is because both of them are about family and they
are both getting put down by society. One interesting this that I found about these books
is that in The Weight of Water
they are trying to put their family back together, but in
Becoming Billie Holiday
the society is trying to break them apart with her dad leaving
Kasienka and her mom, and the government splitting them up and saying that she is an
unfit mother. Also, another difference that I saw between this book is that they were
both getting bullied, but they were getting bullied for different reasons. In Becoming
Billie Holiday
she was getting bullied because she was black which is racism, a form of
bullying. In the book The Weight of Water
, she was just getting bullied because she was
the new kid and there were some mean people in her school. I believe that the book
that has the better subject for poetry is Becoming Billie Holiday.
I believe this because it
went in deeper in the subjects. Also, another reason why I think that this book has a
better subject for a verse novel is the fact that most of these problems are still prevalent
to this day like racism and poverty. Teens need to no these things so that racism goes
away in the future.
In addition to considering if the subject is right for poetry when understanding the
similarities and differences between Becoming Billie Holiday
and The Weight of Water
,
we must also consider if the protagonist is right for poetry.
For the book, The Weight of Water,
the protagonist, Kasienka, believes that she needs
to find her father in England. So they move to England from Poland and search for him.
The main character at the start of the book is set on finding her father and making
things right and having a family once again, But as the poem moves on the character is
realizing that her father is not trying to find her and her mother. I believe that the main
turning point for her is when she meets her father and they have this conversation. For
example, “Will you come see Mama?” I ask./ Tata looks at the clock again/ And says,/ In
English/ “Eventually.” This is so significant because it shows that her father is kind of
moving on. I can tell that because if you are the father or husband of a family the first
thing you would want is to make sure that your kids or your wife are safe but he says
that he will Eventually come see Kasienka's mom. Another reason why It shows that the
father is moving on is that in the text it says, “ In English/ “Eventually.” What is
interesting about this is the fact that throughout the book, the poet has never said if
when the mother or daughter are speaking if they are speaking in Polish or English but
here they do. I believe that this shows that her dad is moving on when he is talking to
her in English and this is how the author shows it. I believe that the author here is
hinting at the fact that he is moving on. I believe that this proves that the protagonist is
good for poetry because she is constantly changing what she thinks and in poetry the
tone and the mood change in the poem often and I think that they are kind of connected
in a way where she cannot make up her mind on her father.
On the other hand, the second verse novel, Becoming Billie Holiday,
is about a girl
named Eleanor but she kind of changes her name to Billie Holiday. What she mainly
has to go through is the fact that she is living with her mom, who is a single mother, and
they are looking for a home. So they keep bouncing from family member to family
member living with the for a little bit. For example, “ Me and my mother never really had
a set home we were always moving house to house and from family member to another
family members house.” (57) She also has to deal with plenty of racism because she is
an African American girl who is trying to be a singer. “ After being called “n**ger wrench”
down South and “high yellow in Detroit.” Although she was met with extreme racism and
prejudice, she was still able to keep her cool. She was able to keep her cool because
she knew if she got mad and freaked out she would never get this opportunity again. I
believe that this shows that the protagonist is good for poetry because she is calm when
she needs to be and very angry when she needs to be. Since she is able to change her
mood, this adds a lot of different tones and mood to the story which I believe is really
important in a verse novel. Some of the benefits of having a main character like this is
that you are able to explore many different tones and mood which can add a lot of
different things that the author can do with the story.
Now for the similarities and differences between these two protagonists. I feel like
these characters are more similar than they are different. First, lets go over some simple
similarities. They are both at the start of the book teenage girls and you get to see them
grow up. The second reason that I find these characters similar is that they have moved
from their original home. For example, In The Weight of Water
“Honey, you need to
come back you have a child!” “ No! We will find him and we will not leave” (39). Also, in
the book Becoming Billie Holiday
, “ Me and my mother never really had a set home we
were always moving house to house and from family member to another family
members house.” (57). This shows that they were not where they were not where they
were originally from. Another reason that both of these characters are similar is the fact
that they are both getting bullied maybe not in the same way because In The Weight of
Water
she is getting bullied because she is a new student, but in Becoming Billie
Holiday
she is receiving racism. The ways that these characters are different are that
they are not the same race and that is having an effect on how Billie is being treated
because she is African American. Another way the characters are different is that their
main goals are different. In The Weight of Water
, the main characters main goal is to
find her father and be a family again, but in Becoming Billie Holiday
her main goal is to
become a jazz singer with the odds highly stacked against her. I believe that the book
that does a better job with is the protagonist right of poetry is Becoming Billie Holiday
I
believe this because the main character, Billie Holiday, adds more tone and I feel like is
dealing with a harder situation but gets through it and preservers to become what she
wanted to be.
Moving on, in comparing these two verso novels in addition with if the subject is right for
poetry and if the protagonist is right for poetry it is also important to consider what the
poems look like on the page. This is important because with poetry you can add page
breaks and gaps between the word. The reason that poets do this is to show mood or
tone in the text.
First, for the book The Weight of Water.
This book does change up the way the word
are in line in the poems. It might not be all the time but it is noticeable and you can see
where the poet made a really good decision in making it that way because you can see
the mood in the way the words look. For example, look at the picture below.
Here when the poet writes “ Of Bombed/ out/ villages.” you can tell here that the main
character, Kaisenka, is realizing where she is going to have to live until she finds her
father. And the way that they make the text shows that she is not excited about an
thinks it pretty lame. I can tell this because the poet uses the one-word lines and
stretches them out.
Now, I will talk about Becoming Billie Holiday
, this book very rarely changes the form of
the text and usually keeps the form of the text pretty standard. For example, look at the
picture below titled “My First Impression of You”.
The text feature that this book uses a lot are pictures. This adds a lot to the story, what
the characters look like, specific places, etc. here is an example of one of the pictures
with the main character Billie Holiday, look at the picture below.
What this book lacks in changing text spaces and gaps, it makes up with pictures. Don’t
get me wrong, this book still has a lot of tone and mood and I like the fact that the
author added pictures to the book.
The similarities, and differences in these two books for their text features and how the
poem look on the page. There are not that many things that are similar between these
books. The main difference is that one book, Becoming Billie Holiday
, doesn’t change
the text at all but it has pictures. However, the other book, The Weight of Water,
doesn’t
have any pictures but it does change the text in the poems. These books when you talk
about text features and how the words look in the poems are the exact opposite.
The main thing that I want people to know about verse novels is that they are amazing.
What I mean by this is that normal book tends to have 3 times the amount of words a
verse novels, but the verse novels still have to fit detail and emotion in their story.
Another thing about verse novels is that they are different from both prose and poetry.
The way that they are different is that in poetry you are not able to tell a story, but in
verse novel, you can write in poem form and have a story. Also, prose novels can't have
their text in poem form but verse novels can. What I find amazing about this is that the
authors of verse novels have to make sure every word counts and they cant have a lot
of space to say whatever they want. That’s what I find so interesting and I hope I shared
that with you in this Comparison Essay and I hope you realized that as well.
