SLIS 5420 Module 14 Poetry and Series books

MIRROR MIRROR

By Marilyn Singer

 

 

Bibliography

 

Singer, M., & Masse, J. (2010). Mirror mirror: A book of reversible verse. New York: Dutton Children's Books.

 

Summary

 

A collection of poems based on fairy tales written side by side with the lines of one  poem written in reverse order giving each poem two different meanings.

 

Reviews

 

Booklist starred (January 1, 2010 (Vol. 106, No. 9))

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Grades 2-5. This ingenious book of reversos, 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. The five opening lines of the Goldilocks reverso read: “Asleep in cub’s bed / Blonde / startled by / Bears, / the headline read.” Running down the page side-by-side with this poem is a second, which ends with: “Next day / the headline read: / Bears startled / by blonde / asleep in cub’s bed.” The 14 pairs of poems—easily distinguished by different fonts and background colors—allow changes only in punctuation, capitalization, and line breaks, as Singer explains in an author’s note about her invented poetic form. “It is a form that is both challenging and fun—rather like creating and solving a puzzle.” Singer also issues an invitation for readers to try to write their own reversos on any topic. Matching the cleverness of the text, Masse’s deep-hued paintings create split images that reflect the twisted meaning of the irreverently witty poems and brilliantly employ artistic elements of form and shape—Cinderella’s clock on one side morphs to the moon on the other. A must-purchase that will have readers marveling over a visual and verbal feast.

 

Horn Book (March/April, 2010)

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Through a poetic invention she dubs the reverso, Singer meditates on twelve familiar folktales, and, via the magic of shifting line breaks and punctuation, their shadows. Each free-verse poem has two stanzas, set on facing columns, where the second is the first reversed. Red Riding Hood, contemplating berries, thinks, "What a treat! But a girl / mustn't dawdle. / After all, Grandma's waiting" while across the page the wolf lurks: "After all, Grandma's waiting, / mustn't dawdle... / But a girl! / What a treat..." In the main, the poems are both cleverly constructed and insightful about their source stories, giving us the points of view of characters rarely considered. Similarly bifurcated illustrations, Shrek-bright, face the poems: Goldilocks ("ASLEEP IN CUB'S BED, / BLONDE / STARTLED BY / BEARS") awoken; the bears surprised ("BEARS STARTLED / BY BLONDE / ASLEEP IN CUB'S BED").

 

My thoughts

 

These poems are very clever with an interesting twist.  Using fairy tales as the basis for the poems make them even more interesting as the meanings reverse for each poem, showing how the order of the lines change the meaning.

 

How it could be used

 

Because the order of the lines makes all the difference in the outcome of each poem, a math lesson could be effective in demonstrating how the order of functions in an equation changes the solution.  The students could try their hand at writing a short poem in and then reversing the lines to see the effect.