Book Cover
Book Summary
The poems in this book show different sides of popular fairy tales. For each fairy tale, the poem reads both top to bottom and bottom to top to tell two sides of each tale. The punctuation does differ on some lines, but the words themselves stay the same. For instance, in "Have Another Chocolate", the first poem is the witch telling Hansel to eat more so he will fatten up, but the second poem is Gretel telling Hansel not to eat so much so he won't get fatter.
APA Reference of Book
Singer, M. (2010). Mirror, mirror. New York, NY: Dutton Children's Books.
Impressions
I really like this book. The poems are clever on their own, but the way they tell two sides of a story just by reversing the order of the lines is amazing. The mood of several of the poems also shifts dramatically with the line reversal. In "In the Hood", Red Riding Hood's poem is light and happy as you would expect from a girl skipping through the woods to visit her grandmother. The wolf's poem is more sinister as he stalks Red Riding Hood through the woods.
Professional Review
"Talented poet Singer here creates her own poetic form, dubbed by her "reversos": a verse that reveals a different poem when the lines are reversed bottom to top, with changes only in punctuation, capitalization, and line breaks. Fourteen such top-to-bottom/bottom-to-top pairings are featured, all focusing on folklore, most on particular tales, and the result is neatly, astonishingly clever. "In the Hood" follows Red Riding Hood in one direction ("picking berries to eat—/ juicy and sweet/ what a treat!"), the waiting wolf in the other ("But a girl!/ What a treat—/ juicy and sweet"); "Have Another Chocolate" provides in turn the witch's ("Fatten up./ Don't/ keep her waiting … ") and Gretel's ("Keep her waiting/ Don't/ fatten up") views of Hansel; the genuinely reflective "Do You Know My Name?" gives voice to both Rumpelstiltskin ("I am/ famous/ but not/ liked") and the girl he saves ("I am liked/ but not/ famous"). The art, full page 'tale-scapes facing each page of poetry, reflects the duality in the verses, with each painting possessing a vertical axis that operates variously as scene divider, pivot point, or boundary between the two concepts; though the draftsmanship is a little cartoonish at times, the vivid, cheerful colors and humorous tone add accessibility to the already open and inviting pages. Kids will want to try the form out, if only to find out how tough it really is, and the poems will make a worthy addition to discussions of viewpoint and folklore."
Stevenson, D. (2010). [Review of Mirror, mirror: A book of reversible verse by Marilyn Singer]. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 63(8), 353. Retrieved from: http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/
Library Uses
This book is perfect to use as part of writing program during National Poetry Month. Read students selections from the book as examples and then have them write their own reversible poems.
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