Poetry Friday - A review of Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer

Happy Poetry Friday everyone. Today's book is full of very unique poems, all of which explore popular fairy tales from two very different points view. If you have ever been considered reading a story backwards, then this is a book for you.

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse

Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by Josee Masse

Poetry Picture Book

For ages 5 to 8

Penguin, 2010, 978-0-525-47901-7

   We are often told that there are always “two sides to every story.” Actually, there are often more than two sides, because there are often many points of view, but that is another matter entirely. In this book Marilyn Singer looks at a number of classic fairy tales, telling the tales from two points of view using two poems, one of which is literally the upside version of the other.

   Here is a poem about Cinderella, “Stuck in a corner” shining the shoes belonging to her stepsisters who are at the ball “waiting for a chance / with the prince.” If you read the poem from bottom to top who get the second poem on the page, and the picture is altogether a more cheerful one. Here is Cinderella “shining / at the ball” as she dances with the prince for dance after dance, while her stepsisters are “stuck in a corner” waiting for their turn.

   Further on in the book we meet an ugly and doubtful duckling. In the first poem, the duckling is full of hope that one day he will “turn into a swan.”  In the second poem, which is the first one read from the bottom up, we meet a more pessimistic duckling who is convinced that he will always be “stubby and gray.”

   All together, Marilyn Singer looks at fourteen fairy tales in this book, using her unique reverso poems for each one. In addition to Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling, she tells the story of Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and many other familiar favorites. The poems are amusing, interesting, and beautifully complimented by Josee Masse’s luscious artwork.

   At the back of the book, Marilyn Singer shows readers how reverso poems work, and she encourages us to try writing their our own reverso poems.