Miraculous: Mirror Mirror

I believe I've mentioned that my fourth grader isn't a huge poetry fan; next to me singing to him his worst nightmare is probably me reciting poetry.  He barely survived the loveliness of Dark Emperor.  His cousin shares this attitude towards poetry, although I suspect her distaste is not nearly as deep.  So when she spent the night and chose Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer as our first read-aloud, I explained it was poetry with my hands ready to cover my ears from the loud groans.  But I promised we only had to read one poem, and then we could pick another book.


Reader, we finished the book.  The kids took turns reading the poems.  Then had me read them again.  We DISCUSSED the poems.  We marveled over the poems.  We evaluated the pictures in terms of the poems. Singer's trick of writing the poems up and down the page charmed the pants off them, and even lured my sixth grader over.  He wants to read the poems.  I marked two poems as entries in my poetry notebook.  This Cybils Poetry finalist has done the impossible, and I expect it will be hard to beat. A+

The Road

It may be such
a fairy-tale secret.
this much
I know:
The road leads
wherever
you need to go.

You need to go
wherever
the road leads --
I know
this much.
A fairy-tale secret?
It may be such.