Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer

-

Singer, M. (2010). Mirror mirror: A book of reversible poems (J. Masse, Illus.). Dutton Children's Books

              Every story has more than one side. We have been raised with fairy tales only hearing one character’s perspective but what of the others? What was going through the prince’s mind when he went to save Sleeping Beauty? What did Goldilocks think when she awoke to three bears? Singer decides to explore these perspectives alongside the ones we know through her unique and original reversible poetry. A short note about this new form of poem is provided at the end of the book, though she does not share why she chose to rewrite fairy tales. Each poem is written with careful consideration for the form which allows it to be read and understood forwards and backwards. To clarify, backwards means reading line by line going up rather than down. To make this easier for the child reader, each pair of poems is written side by side so that they can be read correctly and the subtle changes in punctuation and intention can be identified. The form and word choice of each poem is purposeful to allow it to make sense both ways. Because of this, each poem is shaped differently to fit the words that need to be used.  

              The illustrations only add to the purpose of this book: to use this new unique poetry style to explore two sides of the same story. Each illustration takes up half a spread letting the verses take up their own space on the other half. Symmetry is a big theme in this book because of the design of the poems. This influences the illustrations by making them balanced images that represent both perspectives of each story. Each picture is split down the middle and either mirrored with a different tone and coloring (the patterned image of the princess and the frog for “Disappointment”) or displaying two separate images that bleed into each other and connect (the split image of Jack climbing the beanstalk and a giant looking down using clouds and the bright blue sky to connect the two for “Full of Beans”). The medium of the art is not told to us, but the brightness of the colors evokes the magical tone that typically accompanies fairy tales. The images themselves also appear to be a mix of traditional and modern in style giving the characters a more cartoonish feel that matches the tone of the poems.

              Overall, this book is a great for kids of different ages for different reasons. Young children will be in awe of the illustrations and enjoy the new perspectives of the stories they have heard many times. Older children will appreciate the creativity of the reverso idea as well as the clever word choice that allows each poem to have two meanings. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré

-
Image
Denis, A. (2019). Planting stories: The life of librarian and storyteller Pura Belpré. (P. Escobar, Illus.) Harper. This book tells the life story of Pura Belpr é , the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City, from her visit to America in 1921 to the end of her life. The author, Anika Aldamuy Denise, felt a connection to this story because she is also a storyteller in a family of immigrants. Pura Belpr é brings a sense of pride to Denise, encouraging her to tell Pura’s story well and accurately, and she does. Spanning through the entirety of a life may seem like too large a scope, but Denise makes sure to mainly focus on the most impactful moments like creating puppets for her stories, sending her stories to a publisher, and getting married. This allows the reader to witness the full impact and scope of Pura’s life in the small amount of space a picture book provides. To keep the culture alive within the text, Denise includes Spanish words and phrases often allowing the context
Read more

Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability by Shane Burcaw

-
Image
Burcaw, S. (2017). Not so different: What you really want to ask about having a disability. (M. Carr, Illus.) Roaring Brook Press.         Shane Burcaw was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy as a baby and has been living with this disability ever since. This also means he has been dealing with the curiosities of people regarding what it is like to live with a disability since then which encouraged him to author this book on himself and his experiences. Though the title may imply that it is a book on disabilities in general, it is more specifically about Burcaw’s life with SMA describing a unique experience that cannot be applied to everyone, making him the best authority on the subject. The book is written in a conversational tone with every subject being introduced by a question he is commonly asked. The book then follows the flow of how a typical conversation revolving this subject with follow-up questions to better explain mentioned facts that many may not be used to. Sometimes
Read more

New Kid by Jerry Craft

-
Image
Craft, J. (2019). New kid. (J. Craft, Illus.) Quill Tree Books. New Kid follows the story of a twelve-year-old Black boy, Jordan, who starts to attend a new mostly white private school in graphic novel format. Each illustration is full of color bringing to life the wide range of characters and the many New York settings. In a full page spread split into three panels describing the crowd of students arriving to school as zombies, the street setting as a background shines through with rows of unique bodegas that could actually exist on a New York City street. Alongside the typical comic panels, this book also features sketched illustrations that are meant to represent the sketches that Jordan draws in his journal throughout the story. These spreads are black and white and look to be drawn with pen or pencil to look as close to a journal sketch as possible. The only bits of color on these spreads are items that are on the border of each image to really enhance the perspective the reader i
Read more