Gracie (age 9): Mirror.
Lily (age 7): Mir- mir- mir- mir- Ror.
Dad: By Suzy Lee. Do you remember who Suzy Lee is?
Lily: Wave!
Gracie: You can totally tell.
Dad: Why? What is similar between "Mirror" and "Wave"?
Gracie: It has no words. It is a similar style. It is all one color.
Lily: It's a no-word-book. We like no-word-books.
Isaac (age 11): You can imagine the words. You can make little voices.
Dad: Tell us about "Mirror."
Lily: It is about this girl who finds a mirror.
Isaac: I was going to say the girl's name, but it occurred to me she doesn't exactly have one.
Lily: I'll name her! I'll name her! Emma.
Gracie: I think she's the same girl from "Wave"...
Lily: Emma.
Gracie: ...only she's wearing yellow this time.
Isaac: But I don't even know what the girl's name in "Wave" was!
Lily: Emma. Her name is Emma.
Dad: So what happens?
Isaac: She is sitting on the ground, bored. She turns her head, and she sees her image in a mirror.
Lily: She'd never seen it before, so she freaked out. Agh!
Gracie: They are making eye contact.
Lily: She thinks it is a friend.
Isaac: I think she thinks it's a reflection.
Lily: Friend.
Dad: The book is a bit ambiguous about what is going on, eh?
Isaac: It is kind of clear... then it is not.
Gracie: She starts making funny faces. They both start dancing.
Isaac: Then the weird stuff happens.
Gracie: They both start freaking out and paint explodes everywhere.
Lily: It looks like the girl is doing armpit toots.
Gracie: Ha ha ha haa hah! That's what an armpit toot noise looks like! Wow - that's a big armpit toot.
Isaac: The art looks crazy and splotchy, with swirls and stuff.
Gracie: Then they go together into one body.
Lily: They are Siamese twins.
Isaac: She goes right into the center of the mirror -- into the crack between the pages. It seems like she goes into the mirror.
Gracie: Then they start dancing again... only the girl in the mirror is doing it wrong.
Isaac: It's not symmetrical anymore. Something weird went wrong with the mirror, and it's not copying her exactly -- not perfectly. She gets angry at the mirror because it's not doing what she wants. So she pushes the mirror and it falls and shatters into a million pieces. So she sits down sad again.
Gracie: I think they switched spots. It's kind of weird. Because at the beginning, the girl starts on the right side. But at the end, the mirror is the one on the right side.
Isaac: This doesn't exactly have a happy ending.
Gracie: But I like it. It's good.
Dad: Can you learn anything?
Gracie: Never push your best friend when she doesn't do exactly the same thing you want her to do. Or else she might shatter into a million pieces and fade away.
Lily: If you are bossy and mean to your friends, they are going to go away.
Gracie: They'll explode. Your friendship breaks and you are left alone.
Dad: What is cool about this being a wordless book?
Lily: You can imagine what's happening.
Gracie: You can imagine her feelings.
Dad: There were a lot of emotions in this book, huh?
Gracie: Sadness. Happiness. Anger.
Dad: Shyness. Curiosity.
Gracie: You get this emotional connection to the girl in the mirror. When the girl gets grumpy, you start feeling a little angry. And when you see her face when the girl breaks the glass, it's sad for you too.
Dad: What would you do if your reflection started acting on its own?
Isaac: I'd probably run for my life! But then I'd start getting curious about it.
Lily: I'd freak out.
Dad: What was your favorite part about this book?
Isaac: I like the big middle part with all the explosions and stuff.
Dad: How do you think Suzy Lee made those shapes?
Gracie: Splotchy paint.
Isaac: She splotches the paint, and then she folds it together and pulls it out, and then it's symmetrical. It looks like "Photo Booth."
Dad: Oh yeah, you can do that on our computer. The "Photo Booth" program has a setting for split-mirror snapshots...
Isaac: Hey! That's how we can do our pictures!
Dad: Hold your paintings up to the Photo Booth camera? That would be cool! Sure, go ahead.
Isaac: I want to do that!!!
Here are the kids' originals:
Now for the mirrored Photo Booth versions and all the surprising shapes that result!
by Isaac
by Lily
by Gracie
Author/Illustrator: Suzy Lee
Published, 2010: Seven Footer Press
Like it? Find it
11 comments:
Yea! I missed it today. This morning I saw "Wave" at the library and thought of your blog. Interesting coincidence. Love the photos especially.
Wow! Great mirrored art!
I was already on the look out for this book and now I'm going to hassle the librarians about it! (well, not hassle, but you know what I mean). The photos are great fun - I love the floating head.
great post! thank you for sharing it at Book Sharing Monday :)
Oh, wow! This is fantastic! I've never heard of this author or seen either of the books. I'll definitely have to keep my eyes open for it!
:-)
Great post! Not your same old same old, that's for sure. What fun as a family!
Those Photo Booth art pieces are fantastic. Sounds like there is a lot of food for thought in the Mirror book.
Terrific artwork!
The work is amazing! They did such a great job.
Looks like alot of fun!
stopping by from stART!
Oh man, my little brothers used to play with photobooth for HOURS. We had 100's of great pictures from it. It's so much fun.
The artwork is gorgeous. :) I love the mirroring!
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