19. Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer

19. Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, by Marilyn Singer

Amazon.com: Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems (9780525479017): Singer, Marilyn, Masse, Josée: Books

Singer, M. Mirror, mirror. NY: Dutton.

There are two sides to every situation.  This book shows two sides to popular fairy tales-in an unusual way.  It’s called reversible verse. This poetry reads the same moving down the page as moving up the page..  She sets up each page spread with the two versions of the poem.   Each version of the poem shows a different point of view of the popular fairy tale characters.  The fairy tales featured in the book include: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Ugly Duckling, Snow White, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and the Frog, and Beauty and the Beast.

This is an excellent book to teach perspective.  Was Cinderella mistreated or did the stepsisters have a bad reputation?   Students can look at beloved fairy tale characters in a completely different way.  The illustrations help support the different perspectives.  Each illustration is split with a line of symmetry.  Each side supports the different versions of the poems.  These poems can also support a lesson on punctuation. It gives examples of how changing a coma or period can change the whole meaning of the sentence.  Punctuation is always so tedious to teach because of the repetition.  This book can put an interesting twist on the lesson!

I found several web sites with good resources for using this book in the classroom.  The first one by Six Traits Gurus gives a summary and activity ideas.  The second is an educator’s guide from the Publisher Penguin.  It includes other books by M. Singer written in reversible verse and gives ideas on activities using all three books.

 https://sixtraitgurus.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/mirror-mirror-a-book-of-reversible-verse/

https://www.penguin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/MirrorMirrorLessonPlans-updated2015-lo.pdf

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