Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror

By Marilyn Singer

Penguin Group, Inc. (2010)

Mirror, Mirror is a book of reversible poems. Singer calls it “reverso”. “When you read a reverso down, it is one poem. When you read it up, with changes allowed only in punctuation and capitalization it is a different poem.” Singer uses fairy tales and common stories that children are familiar with to write reverso poems about. Some in this book are Mirror, Mirror (snow white), The Doubtful Duckling (the ugly duckling), Full of Beans (Jack and The Beanstalk), and Have Another Chocolate (Hansel and Gretel). Each of her poems contains a beautiful illustration on one side of the page (by Josée Masee.) The colors are bright and the pictures match the familiar fairy tale. The other side of the page is split by the “two” poems. They are in different colors and easy for students to distinguish and compare.

I think this would be a great book to read to children and allow them to read before starting a writing unit. This would be such a creative and fun way to turn students on to writing, as many usually don’t like to write. Reverso poems could be fun and challenging for many students.