Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead contains short verses, longer poems that read more like history lessons, and a section at the end titled “Poems: Biographies,” which includes notes on the historical context of many of the poems. Because of this, in pieces such as “Letter E: The Education of Little Miss Muffet,” the reader does not find out about the historical context of Miss Patience Mouffet until they turn to the “Biographies” section, creating a live experience of textual interplay as the reader makes their way through the book, turning back and forth between texts in order to interpret what they are reading more fully.