Personification in the Book Inside Out and Back Again

Inside Out & Dorsum Once more

Lai, Thanhha. Inside Out and Back Again. New York: Harper, 2007. ISBN 9780061962790

Summary:

Imagine yourself young, comfortable, and content with life when all of a sudden the identify you know equally home is under abiding attack. Life isn't rubber anymore in your homeland, so your family must make the difficult and dangerous determination to flee your land in order to salve your lives. This is Hà's journeying. Information technology is a story of life – change, anguish, dreams, sorrow, promises, happiness, and nigh of all, resilience.

Analysis:

In this free verse novel, Thanhha Lai explores the life of a young girl and the struggles she and her family confront. Lai'due south poetic style carries the reader seamlessly through Hà's journey from the starting time of her life in Saigon to her eventual domicile in Alabama. Her words read tenderly and permit the reader to deeply connect with Hà.

Thanhha Lai utilizes the complimentary verse poetic course in her novel Within Out and Back Again. Lai uses frequent line breaks that emphasize natural breaks in the follow of oral communication or a sentence. This normally occurs in her novel with verbs or prepositional phrases outset a line. Most lines are less than seven (7) words long. The consistency in short lines and the varied length of lines allows the reader to interruption and completely take in Lai's linguistic communication.

Lai employs a diverseness of figurative language techniques in order to create a bright picture of Hà's journey. Throughout the novel, the reader volition find show of simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, and imagery. These techniques aid place the reader inside Hà'due south Saigon school hunkered down in a condom place, next to her family aboard the ship, exterior the family tent in Guam, abreast her repeating a grade, and finally, at peace with the loss of her male parent. Lai's novel is a cute, poetic masterpiece based on a real life experience.

Below are examples of Thanhha Lai'due south beautiful use of figurative language:

Simile

"I vow

to ascent first every morning

to stare at the dew

on the greenish fruit

shaped similar a lightbulb." (p. 9)

"The breeze nonetheless cool

we bounce across the bridge

shaped like a crescent moon

where I'one thousand not to go by myself." (p. 32)

"In the distance

bombs

explode similar thunder,

slashes

lighten the sky,

gunfire

falls similar rain." (p .48)

"Black seeds spill

like clusters of optics

wet and crying." (p. threescore)

Onomatopoeia

"I mind to

the swish, swish

of Mother's handheld fan." (p. 67)

Personification

"We handclapping and clap

as the ships draw together

and kiss." (p. 92)

Metaphor

The American send

tows ours

with a steel braid

thick as my body." (p. 92)

Imagery

"Tall and pig-bellied,

black cowboy hat,

tan cowboy boots,

cigar smoking,

teeth shining,

cerise in face,

golden in pilus." (p. 111)

Awards and Review Excerpts:

-2011 National Book Honour Winner

- 2012 Newbery Accolade Book

- Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Fiction of 2011

- Washington Postal service Best Children'southward Books of 2011

- New York Times All-time Seller

From Booklist, starred review: "Based in Lai's personal experience, this first novel captures a child–refugee's struggle with rare honesty. Written in attainable, short free–poetry poems, Hà's immediate narrative describes her mistakes—both humorous and heartbreaking; and readers volition be moved by Hà's sorrow every bit they recognize the anguish of being the outcast."

From The Horn Book: "Lai's spare linguistic communication captures the sensory disorientation of changing cultures as well as a refugee's complex emotions and kaleidoscopic loyalties."

From Publishers Weekly: "A series of poems about English grammer offer humor and a lens into the difficulties of adjusting to a new language and community ("Whoever invented English/ should exist bitten/ by a ophidian"). An incisive portrait of man resilience."

From School Library Periodical: "Sensory language describing the rich smells and tastes of Vietnam draws readers in and contrasts with Hà'south perceptions of banal American food, and the immediacy of the narrative will appeal to those who practice not usually bask historical fiction." ~ Jennifer Rothschild

From Bulletin of the Centre for Children's Books: "In this free-poetry narrative, Lai is sparing in her details, painting big pictures with few words and evoking arable visuals."

Connections:

Locate Saigon on a map and inquiry The Vietnam War to help provide groundwork knowledge.

Collect and share Thanhha Lai's second novel: Listen, Slowly ISBN 9780062229182

Create a "featured poet" display almost Thanhha Lai. Be sure to include information from the author's note constitute at the end of Inside Out and Dorsum Again.

Ask students to select a pivotal event in their lives and write a free verse poem inspired past Lai's style.

Collect, share, make connections and compare Lai's verse novel to other novels where immature adults incur not bad changes or challenges in life, such as:

- Number the Stars past Lois Lowery ISBN 978054757709

- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen ISBN 9781416936473

- Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardner ISBN 9780064401326

Create a collection of movie books about immigration, such equally:

- Coming to America: The Story of Clearing by Betsy Maestro ISBN 9780590441513

- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi ISBN 978075691630

     - If Your Name Was Inverse at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine ISBN 9780590438292

Savor the journey!

~ Mandy

felicianokeisheiled.blogspot.com

Source: http://mrsschneiderreads.blogspot.com/2015/10/inside-out-back-again.html

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