Echo Echo

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

Bibliography

            Singer, Marilyn, and Josée Masse. Echo Echo: Reverso Poems about Greek Myths. New York: Penguin Random House, LLC, 2016. ISBN 9780803739925

Plot Summary

Tales of Greek mythology wind through the illustrated pages of this book. Each page layout contains a myth in poem as well as its exact reverso poem. As if by magic, the reverso poem portrays an alternate perpective to the myth. The illustrations also have reverse images. You can see the gods looking to the humans and vice versa. You can see the past reflecting the present.

Critical Analysis

Anyone can enjoy this poem collection. The first poem in the collection is background on Greek mythology. Also, a brief summary of each myth is given below each set of poems for reference. The collection offers a poem set for twelve of the most beloved Greek myths. Readers are sure to want to learn more about the myths after getting a taste through these poems.

Occasional rhyme adds a sense of playfulness, yet the story of the myth is the main focus of the language. Reading the poems is a fun challenge as the poetry seems to cause the brain to switch back and forth between perspectives. With precision choice of words, Singer elicits an emotional response in each mythical adventure from sympathy to fear. The reader can feel one emotion for one side and a complete opposite for the other side. It’s also a joy to take in the illustrations of the opposing perspectives. Flipping perspectives is a unique experience in Echo Echo.

Review Excerpts

2015 National Council of Teachers of English, Excellence in Poetry for Children Award

From Kirkus Reviews: “In all, though, a visual and interpretive feast bringing timeless tales to a young audience.”

From New York Times: “Marilyn Singer’s ingenious ‘reverso’ poems are child-friendly feats of verbal pyrotechnics...”

From Publisher’s Weekly: “Details about the myths appear across the bottom of the pages, further boosting the utility of another inventive exploration of stories readers thought they knew..”

From School Library Journal: “The demanding wordplay is deftly handled and prettily displayed.”

Connections

Read this to inspire students to write their own poems about mythology or other traditional stories.

Pair the poem, “King Midas and His Daughter” with the book King Midas and the Golden Touch by Charlotte Craft and Kinuko Craft (ISBN 9780060540630). Use the poem to generate interest. Guide students in comparing and contrasting features of each.

Use these poems in reader’s theatre performance.

Connect with D'Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d’Aulaire (ISBN 9780440406945).