Singer, Marilyn. 2010. Mirror Mirror. Ill. by Josée Masse. New York, NY: Dutton Children’s Books. ISBN 9780525479017
Summary
“Who says it’s true – down is the only view? If you believe that, this poem will challenge you. Up is something new.”
Mirror Mirror is a book of poems that challenge our perspective on familiar fairy tale characters, showing that there are two sides to every story. The well-known stories these poems are based on include Cinderella, Sleepy Beauty, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, the Ugly Duckling, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretal, Rumpelstiltskin, Princess and the Frog, and Beauty and the Beast. Most poems show two differing viewpoints of the same situation, such as Red Riding Hood and the Wolf or Sleeping Beauty and the Wide-Awake Prince. A humorous twist on the traditional tales!
Critical Analysis
The reversible verse poem is a clever design author Marilyn Singer created and named the reverso. One free verse stanza is read top to bottom as usual, accompanied by another stanza with the same lines listed in reverse, as if the original poem was read bottom to top. With only changes in capitalization and punctuation allowed, a whole new meaning still takes place. Reversos are a creative and well-suited choice for showing alternate views. They would fit exceedingly well with a lesson on character perspectives. It’s rather remarkable how the same words not only make sense when read in reverse, but also tell their own story!
The arrangement of the poem stanzas paired next to each other with different font and background colors is very effective. Each poem is accompanied by a single image centered below the poem that applies to both stories, like a broken chair for Goldilocks and the Three Bears. As if the poems weren’t clever enough, Josée Masse’s vibrant, creative illustrations artfully enhance the duality of the poem in striking ways. Cut down the center, each perspective is shown in its own column, yet with similar lines flowing from one image to the other. In “Bears in the News,” half the image shows Goldilocks screaming as bear shadows approach, while the other half is a mirror image, but with goldilocks in shadows startling the friendly looking bears. Singer and Masse’s witty pairing of language, imagery, design, and perspective make this delightful collection of poems a must have for every library!
Awards & Reviews
ALA Notable Children's Books, 2011
Cybil Award in Poetry winner
Land of Enchantment Picture Book Award winner
Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee
Horn Book Fanfare list
New York Public Library's 2010 Best 100 Children's Books
2010 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books
Betsy Bird's 100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2010
Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of 2010
Booklist's Editors' Choice list
Washington Post's Top 15 Children's Books of 2010.
Booklist starred (January 1, 2010 (Vol. 106, No. 9))
… irreverently witty poems and brilliantly employ artistic elements of form and shape. … A must-purchase that will have readers marveling over a visual and verbal feast.
Horn Book Magazine (March/April, 2010)
… the poems are both cleverly constructed and insightful about their source stories, giving us the points of view of characters rarely considered.
Kirkus Reviews starred (February 15, 2010)
A mesmerizing and seamless celebration of language, imagery and perspective.
Library Media Connection (May/June 2010)
Truly a visual, as well as a literary, puzzle and such a treat!
Publishers Weekly (February 8, 2010)
Masse's clever compositions play with symmetry … bringing this smart concept to its fullest effect.
Connections
- Choose a poem from the book and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two views presented in the poem.
- The Great Fairy-Tale Debate: Have students choose a poem from Mirror Mirror and find a fractured fairy tale that pairs with the story. Two students will take the side of different characters from the story in a classroom debate. The rest of the class can ask questions of the characters then vote on whose side to choose!
- Create your own reverso poem with an illustration where parts of the picture are changed to other objects in the second half of the image.
- If you enjoyed Marilyn Singer’s reverso poems accompanied by Josée Masse’s illustrations, be sure to check out their other reverso poems books:
Singer, Marilyn. Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems. Ill. by Josée Masse. ISBN 9780803737693
Singer, Marilyn. Echo Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths. Ill. by Josée Masse. ISBN 9780803739925
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