Book Review. - Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Singer, Marilyn. (2010). MIRROR, MIRROR: A BOOK OF REVERSIBLE VERSE. Ill. by Josee Masse. Penguin Group. New York, New York. ISBN: 9780525479017

2. PLOT SUMMARY

In this book of poetry, Marilyn Singer has created reversible poems based off of many classic fairy tales such as Goldilocks, Rapunzel, and The Frog and the Princess. Each poem in this collection is written two ways, forwards and backwards, along with an accompanying illustration by Josee Masse. The dual point of views of these classic tales provide a new interest in young and old alike.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This book of reverso poetry created by the author is a simple enough idea that creates a mesmerising story. The poems can be read both forwards and backwards and are written in a simple format that provides unique perspectives to multiple classic fairy tales. The only thing the author changes is the punctuation in order to help create the different perspectives and in some instances gives different meaning to words. For example, in the poem In the Hood, she starts with “In my hood”, referring to the little girl’s red hood, but when the poem is reversed and told from the wolf’s perspective, she writes “in my ‘hood”, meaning neighborhood. The punctuation itself is one of the most important aspects of the entire book as it helps build the story and turns a rather sinister tone into a more urgent one such as in Have Another Chocolate, where the first poem is from the witch’s point of view, but the second is from Gretel’s.

Along with poems are the pictures, which can stand on their own merit. The poems are written in blue and red spaced out evenly next to each other accompanied with a simple image such as Cinderella’s slipper in Cinderella’s Double Life. However, the full page illustration is what really helps sell the story. Each picture is split down the middle focusing on the point of view of the accompanying character. They mirror the poems so that the forward and reversed stanzas are on the same side as their matching picture. The illustrator kept the flow of the illustration going by keeping the shapes and lines that got split on both sides, like a moon becoming a clock and the wolf’s body becoming the trees. This supports the idea that one story is occurring, but from two different perspectives. The illustrator also played with using light and dark colors to contrast the images or flipping the color schemes altogether, reinforcing the contradicting themes used throughout the book.

Overall, this book is an artful story of poetry paired well with the illustrations that bring the images depicted in the lines to the forefront.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

KIRKUS STAR REVIEW: “A mesmerizing and seamless celebration of language, imagery and perspective.” SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEW: “One of the smartest books out there for kids, young readers will be entranced by Singer’s wordplay and Masse’s lovely (if not equally clever) illustrations.”
NOTABLE CHILDREN’S RECORDINGS
CYBILS AWARD FOR POETRY

5. CONNECTIONS

* This book could be used as an engaging way to teach perspective by using the dual point of views of each poem and analyzing the differences in punctuation to describe the importance in both.

*Other books of poetry by Marilyn Singer:
A STICK IS AN EXCELLENT THING: POEMS CELEBRATING OUTDOOR PLAY ISBN: 9780547124933
ECHO ECHO: REVERSO POEMS ABOUT GREEK MYTHS ISBN: 978-0803739925 FEEL THE BEAT: DANCE POEMS THAT ZING FROM SALSA TO SWING ISBN: 978- 0803740211