Book Review #3: MIRROR MIRROR

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Singer, Marilyn. Mirror Mirror. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2010.

ISBN: 9780525479017

Masse, Josee. Mirror Mirror. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2010.

ISBN: 9780525479017

SUMMARY

Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer was a book of verse novels, or as was described on the title page, “A Book of Reversible Verse.” Throughout the book, there were numerous classic fairy tales that were written in poem format with two sides. The left side told one story from top to bottom, whereas the other side told another story with the same poem in reverse from bottom to top, but still in the same format. This caused some interesting twists to the fairy tales and kept the readers attention throughout the book.

RHYTHM

Long couplets and short lines were used in most of the poems to create a slightly different flow in each one. Even with these slight differences, the poems all flowed together to make the book easy to follow while maintaining the appeal of the original fairy tales. In fact, the changes helped enhance the fairy tales, so the reader could fall in love with them all over again.

RHYME AND SOUND

Rhyme wasn't an important element in this book of poetry, however, it was used in the poem, “In the Hood,” which was about “Little Red Riding Hood.” End rhyme was used throughout this poem. Depending on how each of the poems were written in the book, the sounds could be affected by the rhyme scheme of the poem or by the constant repetitive sounds, since the poems were written from top to bottom, and then repeated from bottom to top. These effects helped the reader understand the differences between the stories being told through the poems.

LANGUAGE

The language chosen throughout the book matched the original language of the fairy tales. Readers could recognize the personification used by the mythical creatures and animals. The use of figurative language also captured the readers' attention and made them want to read more of the fairy tales to see how they could be further changed and still maintain their original purpose.

IMAGERY

Creative and unique language helped this book of poetry keep the readers attention. For instance, in “The Sleeping Beauty and the Wide-Awake Prince,” the prince went “hacking through briars.” This gave the reader an unexpected visual image of the prince and how he lived on a daily basis. These types of mental pictures were used in a lot of the poems and helped the reader to imagine the stories behind the poems and still see their original intent as well as their changes.

EMOTIONS

The poems really captured the “awe” of the reader, since they knew the fairytale stories. Since the stories were written as poetry and in forward and reverse, the readers felt happiness and curiosity while reading the poems. They were never bored and were kept in rapt attention at the unique changes, which made for an enjoyable read.

POETRY BOOKS

This book used the vivid illustrations on each page to capture the reader's attention. Each picture visually displayed the fairytale stories in forward and in reverse. By doing this, the poetry book could capture the attention of younger readers as well as older ones, which was important.

The illustrations helped balance the poetic forms of the fairy tales, because most young readers wouldn't be able to fully understand the different events taking place in each poem without the help from the visual aids that were portrayed in the book. Because of these elements, this book of poetry would keep the attention of a larger reading audience. 

AWARDS, REVIEWS, AND RECOGNITIONS

Best Children's Books of the Year, 2011; Bank Street College of Education

Booklist Editors Choice: Books for Youth, 2010; American Library Association
Horn Book Fanfare, 2010; Horn Book
New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, 2010; New York Public Library
Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts, 2011 ; NCTE Children's Literature Assembly
School Library Journal Book Review Stars, January 2010; Cahners
Washington Post Best Kid's Books, 2010; Washington Post

Mind the Gap Award, 2011

"The poems are both cleverly constructed and insightful...giving us the points of view of characters rarely considered." --Horn Book

"A mesmerizing and seamless celebration of language, imagery, and perspective." --Kirkus, starred review

CONNECTIONS

*Identify the elements of a fairytale

*Compare and contrast the reversible poems

*Introduce how to write poems

*Other poetry books for children:

Kennedy, X.J. and D.M., Jon. Knock at a Star: A Child's Introduction to Poetry.

ISBN: 9780316488006

Moore, Jo Ellen. Writing Poetry with Children. ISBN: 9781557997340