Mirror Mirror is the fairest of them all.

            Fairy tales have been told and retold, rehashed, re-imagined, redrawn, and every other re possible.  Or have they?  Marilyn Singer makes a bold move when she retells classic fairy tales through poems in Mirror Mirror.  What is so bold about telling a fairy tale through a poem, you ask?  Well, Marilyn Singer literally reverses the poems to create a new side to the story.  Marilyn Singer hits all the big fairy tales, including Cinderella, Princess and the Frog, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and almost every other classical fairy tale story imaginable.  It is difficult to explain the genius of these poems, which are called reversos, so I will give you one example from the book.  (I don’t feel like I’m giving anything away since the author has an excerpt on her website.) 

            “Cinderella’s Double Life”

Isn’t life unfair?                         Till the clock strikes midnight

Stuck in a corner,                                 these shoes!

while they’re waiting for a chance          I’ll be shining

with the prince,                         at the ball,

dancing waltz after waltz                       dancing waltz after waltz

at the ball                                              with the prince

I’ll be shining                                        while they’re waiting for a chance

These shoes                                          stuck in a corner.

Till the clock strikes midnight.    Isn’t life unfair?

As you can see, the author reverses the poem and it completely reverses the perspective of the story.  Some of the poems do not flow very well, but this no longer bothers me.  After I read this book and thought about how oddly some of the poems read, I decided to make a reversos of my own.  Is it horrible?  Yes, but I have decided to humiliate myself in order to show that these poems have to be well-planned in order for them to work at all.  Since Mairlyn Singer took all of the major fairy tales, I have decided to write a reversos about my favorite Disney character, Mulan:

Honor                                                              Honor

is key to my                                                      To keep my family

family,                                                              is won at a cost

my father.                                                         A battle, a war

I took the sword                                               You can do this

in the bedroom.                                                I said.

I cut off my hair                                                From the mirror

in the family temple.                                          Staring at me

I left home                                                        I saw a boy

in the middle of the night                                    To save my honor

to save my honor.                                             In the middle of the night

I saw a boy                                                      I left home.

Staring at me                                                    In the family temple

From the mirror.                                               I cut of my hair.

I said                                                                In the bedroom

You can do this.                                               I took the sword.

A battle, a war                                                  My father

is won at a cost.                                                Family

To keep my family                                            Is key to my

Honor.                                                             Honor.

            Josee Masse’s illustrations are wonderful and reveal something different each time you look at one.  The pictures are not mute colors or classically drawn lines, but instead bright colors and drawing that take timeless classics and give them a modern feel.  The illustrations show both perspectives, but are somehow still able to work as one picture.  Very few, if any, of the pictures can work without the other perspective.  Each line flows from its half beautifully into the other.  The illustration for “Do you know my name?” is my favorite because you cannot just look at it; you have to stare and ask yourself questions about what it all means.

            I think this book opens up wonderful opportunities for classroom teachers.  Even the most reluctant poet can appreciate Singer’s wonderful reversos.  A teacher could read the poem to the class, and then model their own poem (as I did with my horrible one above).  Then, the teacher could ask the students to write a simple, four line poem: I feel that anything longer than five or six lines might cause students to become frustrated.  This poem should be fun and engaging, not an arduous task.  I think that this book is a fresh take on classical fairy tales and poetry and is a must-have for any elementary school teacher.