Marilyn Singer
Illustrated by Josee Masse
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 5 to 8
Penguin, 2013, 978-0-8037-3769-3
Most of us know that every story has got at least two
sides. At least two! We know that it is wise to make sure that we know both
sides to a story before we decide which side we will support. Do fairy tales
also have two sides that we should be aware of?
They most
certainly do, and in this delightful book Marilyn Singer looks at some very
popular fairy tales and she give us two points of view. She uses a very interesting
poetical device to do this. For each fairy tale she presents one side of the
story in a poem, and then she reverses the text in the poem to give another
point of view. Thus in the story of the
little mermaid we begin with the idea that she should “For love / give up your
voice. / Don’t / think twice.” In the reverso poem we end with “Think twice! /
Don’t / give up your voice / for love.”
The poem Follow Follow is about the Pied Piper of
Hamelin who led rats away from the town of Hamelin and who, when he was not
paid for his work, had his revenge. The author’s account begins when we hear
from a man who says “there will be / no pay,” for the piper who should “go
away.” In the reverso poem we hear from the piper who, having been betrayed, announces
that he will make sure that the children of Hamelin “shall never return.”
In some of the
pairs of poems the narrator is the same, while in others there are two
narrators. Reverso poems were invented by Marilyn Singer and they show to
perfection how a skilled poet can play with words to create something
interesting and unique. Each of the twelve pairs of fairy tale poems in this
book offers readers something to think about and enjoy.
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