Mirror Mirror

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Singer, Marilyn. MIRROR MIRROR. Ill. by Josee Masse. New York: Penguin Group, 2010.

PLOT SUMMARY
MIRROR MIRROR proves that there are really two sides to every story even when the story is a classic fairy tale. The author takes the idea of some basic fairy tales such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood and puts them into a short, simple poem. Then she goes a step beyond that. She reverses the poem. The view from the “other” side of the story is incredible.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This arrangement of fairy tales in poem style is a modern take on the classics. The book is made up of several classic fairy tales in no particular order. The poems have the same theme of fairy tale; however they do not have to go together. The reader is welcome to skip through the book to whichever poem they like best without missing anything before it.

The poems are arranged on a page where one poem is to be read first and then the reader should then read the second poem which is just a reversal of the first poem. On the opposite side of the poems is a picture showing what is happening in the poem. Just like the poem, the picture is split and reversed. For example, the poem about little red riding hood is given from her point of view and the picture shows her happily skipping along. The reversal of the poem is from the wolf’s point of view and the picture shows him with and evil smirk.

This type of poetry is new to me. The arrangement of words and lining is incredibly important to these poems. In fact, without the use of lining the reversal would not work. I felt that some of the poems were a bit forced. I found myself having to go back and reread some of the poems. One thing that would have made this book of poems easier to read and more interesting for reading aloud would be if there were rhyming in the poems.


REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
This is a remarkably clever and versatile book that would work in any poetry or fairy-tale unit. A must-have for any library.—SLJ

*Starred Review* This ingenious book of reverses, or poems which have one meaning when read down the page and perhaps an altogether different meaning when read up the page, toys with and reinvents oh-so-familiar stories and characters, from Cinderella to the Ugly Duckling. A must-purchase that will have readers marveling over a visual and verbal feast. BOOKLIST

CONNECTIONS
I find it rather hard to connect this book to anything other than the study of poetry or folktales. While it is cute and cleaver it is best left as a fun, read aloud book for a younger group of students. One way to get the students involved is to ask them which character’s point of view is being given in each side of the poems.