The Chinese Mirror retold by Mirra Ginsburg

 illustrated by Margot Zemack

Folk Literature, Multicultural Fiction

This retelling of the Korean folk tale, The Chinese Mirror, tells the story of the first mirror in which a Korean village had ever come in contact. One villager journeys all the way to China and stumbles upon a strange new circular object he has never before seen. He looks into the mirror and sees a man's face looking back at him, he is amazed and buys the strange object immediately.  The man loves his new purchase and delights in looking into the mirror, however, he hides the mirror from everyone because he is afraid it will lose its magic. The man's young wife sees him hiding something and one day finds the mirror in his trunk.  The young wife is distressed because she sees a young beautiful woman staring back. The young wife is afraid her husband is being unfaithful to her.  She takes the mirror to her in-laws and they see other people in the mirror, an old woman and the neighbor's grandpa.  Each villager takes a look into the mirror and believes there to be another person staring back.  Eventually the mirror is shattered into a million pieces, and so are the people they saw in the mirror. This book is a great read for students because the text is not overwhelming and the pictures do a great job of complementing the text which allows readers to visualize what the characters are experiencing. I would use this book in my classroom as a multicultural piece of literature.  In my classroom library I plan on having a section of books that are specifically divided into different literature from around the world.  I plan on having a "traveling section" in which my students can go and select a book from a particular country in order to learn a little more about different nations of the world.