Mirror

Mirror
by Jeannie Baker

In this practically wordless picture book, a day in the lives of two boys are compared side-by-side.  One is growing up in a city in Australia, the other in a village in Morocco.  They are shown doing chores, running errands with their fathers, helping to make dinner, and relaxing.  The book is meant to be “read” both left-to-right (as in English) and right-to-left (as in Arabic).  As you open the book, you see both worlds side-by-side and how similar they are, even though they are worlds apart.

It’s really hard to describe this book without being able to show it to you.  This author spotlight on Baker shows what one of the pages looks like when it’s open.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  As I was going through this book, I was simply in awe over the all of the details and the concept of this book.  Being wordless (except for the introduction, both in English and Arabic), kids who speak any language can discover these boys’ stories.  The art is incredible.  You will be blown away by this book.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Tags: arabic, australia, bilingual books, book review, children, children's books, daily life, jeannie baker, morocco, parallels, Picture Books, wordless books