Skip to main content

Mirror

By

Mirror
by Jeannie Baker
Candlewick; Bilingual edition, 2010. 48 pages. Picture book.

The cover of "Mirror" gives you a clue to the amazing and clever book(s) that is inside. The front shows a nighttime scene of a neighborhood in Australia with a young boy sitting in a window, the Sydney skyline in the background. If you turn the book over, there is another skyline and a young boy sitting in a window at night, but this neighborhood is in the Valley of Roses in Morocco. When you open the cover from either the front or the back, you find two books--one that opens from the left and one that opens from the right. Without words, they tell parallel stories of a day in the lives of two families, one that lives in Morocco and one that lives in Australia. As you go through the books--they are designed so that you can turn the pages simultaneously to see the contrasts and similarities each family experiences--you can see that despite different cultures and environments, there are things that connect us to each other and that are the same no matter where we live.

This message is great, but the way it is presented is what makes "Mirror" so stunning. Each page is an incredible and amazingly detailed collage of various natural and artifical materials including sand, clay, paint, fabric, wool, vegetation, tin and paper. To make it even more interesting and rich, all the text (such as the title, introduction, and end notes) that is included on the Moroccan side is written in beautiful Arabic. You will love the texture and beauty of this book.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

By Anonymous
There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

By
If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

By Anonymous
J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.
Post a Comment
Read more