MIRROR, MIRROR Written with Jane Yolen Viking 2000 ISBN# 0-670-88907-5 Viking hardcover

hardcover

paperback

This book is a collection of folk and fairy tales from around the world, all with a mother/daughter theme. The stories are grouped in sections (good girls, foster mothers, grandmothers, etc.) and followed by conversations between my mother and me which include real-life anticdotes, as well as litterary and psychological references. I am torn between wanting this book to do well because I think it is a marvelous collection with good insights into mother/daughter relationships and wanting it to be lost on the shelves because I have revealed a lot about myself in it--too much? Actually, this book brought me closer to my mother and I learned more about her than I needed to know and even learned a lot about her mother-my grandmother- who died before I turned 4. This is the point of the book. We're hoping that the readers can use the old tales and our conversaitons as a starting point for their own conversations.

     Available in hardcover, paperback soon.

What reviewers have said:

"Richly varied and culturally diverse, these 40 selections include the familiar ... and the little known. They are grouped thematically, and each section is followed by a conversation between the editors ... These conversations deal with serious issues but are not without humor, and the relationship between mother and daughter, revealed as they talk, should encourage those mired in even the most difficult parent-adolescent struggles. An excellent addition to any folktale collection, this is recommended especially for public and school libraries where it might be used for discussion groups."--School Library Journal

"The bond between mothers and daughters, whether felicitous or contentious, is the theme of the folktales selected by this mother-daughter team. In their introduction, the first of a series of sharp-witted dialogues, Yolen, a storyteller and prolific children's book author, and Stemple, also an author and herself the mother of daughters, discuss the origins of their collection. Stemple was surprised to find that these old tales were not at all as she remembered them, and readers will share her experience. Whether a folktale is a variation on the story of Cinderella, Snow White, or Rapunzel, an unfamiliar tale about river spirits, or the promises of the sun to a barren mother, it reveals significant insights into the concepts of good and bad mothers and daughters, reward and punishment, physical versus moral beauty, and nature versus nurture. Representative of the oral traditions of Europe, Africa, Asia, India, and the Caribbean, these folktales remain fresh and open to interpretation, and Yolen and Stemple's discussions are, accordingly, lively and illuminating." -- Booklist

See the Rambles review of Mirror, Mirror.

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