Mirror

by Jeannie Baker, Jeannie Baker (Illustrator)

Overview

An innovative, two-in-one picture book follows a parallel day in the life of two families: one in a Western city and one in a North African village. 

Somewhere in Sydney, Australia, a boy and his family wake up, eat breakfast, and head out for a busy day of shopping. Meanwhile, in a small village in Morocco, a boy and his family go through their own morning routines and set out to a bustling market. In this ingenious, wordless picture book, readers are invited to compare, page by page, the activities and surroundings of children in two different cultures. Their lives may at first seem quite unalike, but a closer look reveals that there are many things, some unexpected, that connect them as well. Designed to be read side by side — one from the left and the other from the right — these intriguing stories are told entirely through richly detailed collage illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763648480
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	11/09/2010
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	1,040,138
Product dimensions:	10.60(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Jeannie Baker is the author and illustrator of a number of children’s picture books, including the award-winning Where the Forest Meets the Sea. Born in England, she now lives in Australia.

Editorial Reviews

Opening this expertly designed picture book reveals two parallel wordless tales: one to be read left to right, the other right to left. The stories follow a day in the family life of two boys, who live in urban Australia and the Valley of Roses in southern Morocco, respectively, as Baker explains in an afterword, written in English and Arabic. In layered, three-dimensional collages, Baker shows the differences between the families (traveling to an open-air market by donkey versus a trip to a hardware megastore in a Citroën), but it is the underlying commonalities--helping parents, doing chores, caring for pets, sharing meals--that will resonate most. Ages 5–7. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

With beautiful, meticulously constructed collage, Baker shows two very different worlds…By placing the narratives side by side, opening toward each other, she highlights their similarities.
—The New York Times Book Review

Baker’s entrancing collages, packed with visual information and created with fabric, sand, vegetation and other unusual materials, have the power to bring back child and adult viewers for infinite ‘readings.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In layered, three-dimensional collages, Baker shows the differences between the families (traveling to an open-air market by donkey versus a trip to a hardware megastore in a Citroën), but it is the underlying commonalities—helping parents, doing chores, caring for pets, sharing meals—that will resonate most.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Viewers will thrill to see the Moroccan dad selling a carpet (woven by the boy's mother) to a man, while on the facing spread the Australian dad buys that same rug from the same man at a shop called "Magic Carpets." Magic, indeed
—The Horn Book (starred review)

Illuminates the common humanity beneath the surface of cultural differences.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 4—In Window (1991) and Home (2004, both Greenwillow), Baker combined a concept, her signature collages, and a wordless format to underscore environmental issues. Mirror illuminates the common humanity beneath the surface of cultural differences. In a clever design, two sets of bound signatures face one another, the gatherings reversed from their normal location inside the spine; readers manipulate the two openings simultaneously. In parallel narratives, two boys awaken in the moonlight, accompany their fathers on an errand, and return home. In the story on the left, the destination is a hardware emporium in Sydney, Australia. Materials for an indoor fireplace are purchased and put in a van. The right side occurs in Morocco. Father and son mount a donkey and travel a long distance to sell a hand-woven rug and buy a computer at the market. After a family dinner, they turn it on and the Australians settle onto a fireside carpet matching the one in the other story. The size, shape, and number of the panels in one story are reflected in the other, a choice that assists with comparison. English and Arabic paragraphs introduce the visual narratives. A diagram indicates the right-to-left orientation of the Moroccan story. Baker's skill in orchestrating fabric, vegetation, clay, and other materials into scenes with the proper scale and convincing depth is a wonder to behold. The author's notes hint at her purpose and process. A fresh take on a timely and timeless message.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library

School Library Journal

This entirely original book is a strong contender to bring to a desert island, especially as it's two books in one. Open the "books" simultaneously, in English from left to right and in Arabic from right to left. Scan the pictures and compare family life and global interdependence as the panorama of urban and rural scenes from two very different countries unfolds. Wordless, except for an introduction and an illustrator's afterword in English and Arabic, the pictures allow readers to meet an Australian boy and a Moroccan boy whose lives become interconnected. The Moroccan boy and his father sell a rug woven in their rural home, and it ends up in Sydney, in a small house that is being renovated by an Australian family. As the boy in Australia draws a picture of his new "flying carpet," the Moroccan boy sets up his computer, bought with profits from the rug. Baker's entrancing collages, packed with visual information and created with fabric, sand, vegetation and other unusual materials, have the power to bring back child and adult viewers for infinite "readings." Perfectly spectacular. (Picture book. All ages)

Kirkus Reviews

The innovative format makes use of carefully designed layouts, meticulous details and brilliantly colored collages to follow two young boys and their families from sunup to moon-rise…Both are straightforward narratives, but examined side-by-side, they show how our lives intersect and how those connections enrich us all.
—The Washington Post

Kristi Jemtegaard

With beautiful, meticulously constructed collage, Baker shows two very different worlds. Her Australian city is filled with words…[her] Moroccan village, on the other hand, is completely wordless…a land of color and texture…Even so, elements of each culture make their way to the other side…Baker…designs her book as an object to be held. By asking readers to flip the pages in different directions for each of her narratives, she speaks to the cultural differences between Australia and Morocco. By placing the narratives side by side, opening toward each other, she highlights their similarities.
—The New York Times

Gene Luen Yang