Mirror by Jeannie Baker - review

Two families - one in Sydney, Australia, and one in Morocco. Jeannie Baker takes us through each family's day, showing us warm domestic scenes and sweeping landscapes, making subtle, everyday connections across the seemingly vast gulf of difference separating the two settings.

The Moroccan family gets around by donkey, while the Australians drive a yellow minivan. The Australian kid wears a red t-shirt and jeans, and the Moroccan kid wears his jeans under a red djellaba. Both boys have a baby sibling in a fuzzy yellow sweater. Tea is poured, pets are fed. The Moroccan boy likes to draw: the Australian one writes a story. Maybe they'll write a book together one day.

 

 

This graceful, nearly wordless double book gives any child something to think about and lots to appreciate. Jeannie Baker's sculptural mixed-media collages snag the attention with their realism and depth. I've admired her work for ever, and she just gets better with every book. The Hidden Forest is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and I give Home as a housewarming gift to every new family I know. A few photographs of her process are a thoughtful addition to this book.

The front and back covers of Mirror depict each boy sitting in his window looking at the moon. For some reason, these two nighttime images make this book feel like a perfect gift for the New Year. Hopeful, peaceful, unified across space and time by beauty and imagination and youth.

 

 

Reviewed in The New York Times.

Also by Suite 101.

And by Reading Upside Down.