Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems

Here's a mind-bender of a poetry book. All of these poems, inspired by fairy tales, read forwards and backwards, and each way they make sense in surprising and even ironic ways. The forward poem about Hansel and Gretel has the witch encouraging Hansel to eat and fatten up; the reverse effect is Gretel telling Hansel not to eat. Cinderella is first unhappy and stuck in the corner; on the reverse she's spinning at the ball with the prince. Readers will be inspired to try their hand at their own reversible verse!

Marilyn Singer presents fourteen "reverso" poems in this delightful picture-book, each of which offers a dual retelling of a classic fairy-tale. Read down the page, the poem tells one side of the story, but when the lines are printed in the opposite order, it gives another perspective. Consider In the Hood, from both Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf'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.

After all, Grandmother'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.

Some show more of these selections work better than others, but when done right, they are immensely appealing and quite thought-provoking. They're obviously also very clever! The illustrations are colorful, and while I wouldn't describe them as a particular favorite, I appreciated the way in which the dual nature of the poems in question is captured in the artwork.

I was a little confused to see that the author claims to have invented this form, which she has named the "reverso," as I believe that the ancient Greeks and Romans also had (very short) "palindrome poems," and the epic Sanskrit poems Kirātārjunīya and Shishupala Vadha (neither of which I have read) are said to contain longer passages in the form. But leaving that aside (after all, not everyone has studied ancient literature!), I do think that, in the field of contemporary poetry, and specifically, children's poetry, Singer has done something innovative and exciting. I consider it an added bonus that she chose to experiment with this new form in order to retell fairy-tales! show less

This book of illustrated reverse poems on traditional fairy tales was for the most part very enjoyable. Each poem is a quick read that really gets you thinking about the multiple perspectives in the story. One thing I was not quite a fan of was the tonal shift. The first half of the book the poems tell the traditional story and then the reverse gives you a whole new perspective that was typically quite funny to think about. I particularly enjoyed the more modern feel the language have in “The Hood”, a poem about Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. The problem was that the second half lost that charm, telling two sides that people are generally familiar. One knows the bears’ side and the girl’s side in the story of Goldilocks. show more This theme repeated itself with the poems going from being whimsical and a fresh take to predictable. All in all I love the concept of reverse poems for children, but I wish the tone had stayed consistent. show less

I liked the book Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer for many reasons. The first reason I like this book is because of how the writing is down. The poems can be read up or down. Reading the poem tells you one story but reading it the other well tells a different story. This book takes fairytales and tells two different stories. I love the uniqueness of this poetry book. It pushes readers to look at the different sides in common fairytales. The author did an amazing job using language in this book to tell two different stories. It must be a challenge to use the same words and tell two different stories. For example, the author says in a poem about Little Red Riding Hood, “In my hood, /skipping through the wood, /carrying a basket, /picking show more berries to eat-/juicy and sweet/what a treat! /But a girl/mustn’t dawdle. /After all, Grandmas waiting.” (Singer, p. 12). In the first poem the author is writing about the wolves’ perspective of the girl running through the woods on her way to see her grandmother. If you read the poem from the bottom up, it is from Little Red Riding Hoods point of view as she is on her way to see her grandmother. My favorite part about this book are the illustrations. The illustrations are on the left hand side of every page but are split into two images. On one side shows the first poem and the other side of the illustration shows the second poem. These illustrations are very powerful in telling the meaning of the poem. Even though the two poems are different, the illustrations are connected in a way. The big idea of these poems are to tell common fairytale stories showing different perspectives. show less

When I first started to read the poems in the book I was a little bit confused until I figured out what the poet was doing. She wrote a poem about a tradition fairytale and paired it with the same poem written backwards, giving it a whole new meaning. For example, little red riding hood from the perspective of the girl is then reversed to represent the point of view of the wolf watching her. This would be beneficial for upper elementary students to analyze sentence structure and how it creates meaning. I did think some poems were a bit tricky to understand but I appreciated the fact that the 'new' poems were paired with their widely recognizable original stories.

Marilyn Singer does a phenomenal job making these poems work both forwards and backwards. It's absolutely amazing. The example used for when she invented "reverso poems" was "A cat without a chair: Incomplete." "Incomplete: A chair without a cat". I think that the thought brought into these poems is amazing. Additionally, the fact that she has managed to flip the entire meaning of the poem on it's head, simply by reading it backwards is no feet less than extraordinary. The illustrator did a wonderful job as well, finding ways for the pictures to become the next, contrasting each other with such grace. This book is a must read.

Marilyn Singer uses a technique called reverso to show that every story has two sides. The author revisits classic fairy tales and shows the view of the protagonist and the antagonist. She does this in a very creative and awe-inspiring way. Simply adding different punctuation and flipping the text can bring a whole new meaning to the words. This book is an interesting and very entertaining book. I like how clever this technique is and how well the author demonstrated it using stories many of us know and love.