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Summary
Summary
With 6 starred reviews, 8 best of the year lists, and over 20 state award nominations, everyone is raving about Mirror Mirror !
"Remarkable."-- The Washington Post
"This mind-bending poetry is accompanied by Masse's equally intelligent, equally amusing art."-- Time Out New York for Kids
What's brewing when two favorites--poetry and fairy tales--are turned (literally) on their heads? It's a revolutionary recipe: an infectious new genre of poetry and a lovably modern take on classic stories.
First, read the poems forward (how old-fashioned!), then reverse the lines and read again to give familiar tales, from Sleeping Beauty to that Charming Prince, a delicious new spin. Witty, irreverent, and warm, this gorgeously illustrated and utterly unique offering holds a mirror up to language and fairy tales, and renews the fun and magic of both.
Author Notes
Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 3, 1948, and lived most of her early life in North Massapequa on Long Island. She attended Queens College, City University of New York as an English major and education student, and for her junior year, attended Reading University, in England. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Queens and a MA in Communications from New York University. Marilyn Singer had been teaching English in New York City high schools for several years when she began writing in 1974. Initially, she wrote film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and filmstrips. She also began looking into magazine writing. Her article proposals were not very successful, but she did manage to have some of her poetry published. Then one day she penned a story featuring talking insects she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published.
Since then, Marilyn has published more than 50 books for children and young adults. In addition to a rich collection of fiction picture books, Singer has also produced a wide variety of nonfiction works for young readers as well as several poetry volumes in picture book format. Additionally, Singer has edited volumes of short stories for young adult readers, including Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls and I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Horn Book Review
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"). From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Each of these 12 unrhymed poems about a classic fairy tale is paired with the same poem, written backward, which provides another point of view. The richly painted facing artwork is split into two interrelated pictures. Singer calls her new form "reverso" and notes that it is especially useful for telling two characters' sides of a story. Audio version available from Live Oak Media. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Singer uses "reverso" poems, a form of her creation, to show that there are two sides to every fairy tale (the poems can be read backward and forward). On each page, two poems appear, one an inversion of the other with minor changes in punctuation. In "In the Hood," Little Red Riding Hood's poem ends: "But a girl/ mustn't dawdle./ After all, Grandma's waiting," while the wolf's poem begins: "After all, Grandma's waiting,/ mustn't dawdle.../ But a girl!" Masse's clever compositions play with symmetry (in "Longing for Beauty," Beauty and the Beast appear as one being, split in half, her tresses echoing his fur), bringing this smart concept to its fullest effect. Ages 6-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* 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.--Austin, Patricia Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A collection of masterful fairy-taleinspired reversosa poetic form invented by the author, in which each poem is presented forward and backward. Although the words are identical in each presentation, changes in punctuation, line breaks and capitalization create two pieces that tell completely different stories. "In the Hood," for instance, first presents Red Riding Hood's perspective: "In my hood, / skipping through the wood, / carrying a basket, picking berries to eat / juicy and sweet / what a treat! / But a girl / mustn't dawdle. / After all, Grandma's waiting." Reversed, we hear from the wolf: "After all, Grandma's waiting / mustn't dawdle... / But a girl! / What a treat / juicy and sweet / picking berries to eat, / carrying a basket, / skipping through the wood / in my 'hood." Masse's gorgeous, stylized illustrations enhance the themes of duality and perspective by presenting images and landscapes that morph in delightful ways from one side of the page to the other. A mesmerizing and seamless celebration of language, imagery and perspective. (note on the form) (Poetry. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
